Abnormalities
by ArtisteFish
Summary: Naraku had been defeated and the jewel destroyed, and both Inuyasha and Kagome became stranded in the future. They weren't worried, they had each other; but they were careless, and the wrong people took notice. For three years now they've been objects of experimentation, trapped in labs and in their own minds, but everything changes when one of them wakes up.
1. Chapter 1

Abnormalities, an off-canon Inuyasha story

* * *

"Scalpel."

White light met her return to consciousness, and it took her a moment to realize that she was awake. W-where was she? Who was she? What had she been –

It was then that searing pain rushed from her chest to her every extremity, and she choked on her breath at the suddenness of the sensation. She tried to cry out, but her voice was hoarse and breaking like sea-waves. Her silence allowed the frantic voices around her to rise over her straining vocal chords.

"She's coming out of it!"

"Anesthesia!"

"She shouldn't be waking up yet."

Kagome didn't even feel the needle enter her arm as the pain engulfed her; and she didn't feel when blackness slipped over her conscious once again.

* * *

"What do you think happened? She's never woken up during an operation before."

Kagome's eyes roved under her eyelids, their led-weight offering her sensitive cornea some protection from the intrusive light surrounding her.

"Perhaps we're getting closer to the source of her abilities. We could be on the cusp of a breakthrough."

'Abilities…' she thought absently, grasping for coherent thought as her mind struggled under a heavy fog of long disuse, 'I have abilities… what are they…. What _are_ they? I knew once….'

"What about the other one?"

Other… there were others? Was she in a hospital?

"The lab results were inconclusive – again. I don't understand! His DNA… parts are recognizable, but the rest… it's like we don't even have the means of classifying it! As if it's something _new_!"

Flat against a lightly cushioned pallet, Kagome listened intently to the conversation. She understood the words, but grasped in vain for their context. She could vaguely remember who she was, where she was _supposed_ to be, and this didn't match up with her memories at all.

"It's been three years, Doctor. With all the money we've spent trying to crack what he is… shouldn't we just abandon the project?"

"We've gone too far to give up now. Just think what we could do if we could harness the power he has… it's incredible! Besides, what's our other option? Euthanize him? That'd be a waste of scientific research."

Who were they talking about… a person? No, it couldn't be – doctors wouldn't be so flippant over a human life.

"… Should we try the girl again? Now that she's come out of her coma… I know she wasn't much help at the beginning, but maybe she'd be more willing to talk now that some time has passed."

"Yes… he's definitely not the same creature she came in with. I wonder if she knew he would change so much. We'll question her once she's gained full awareness. I don't think it would be wise to have them together though. Their abilities are dangerous enough on their own… if they were to somehow combine their powers…."

"I wish you wouldn't use that word, Doctor. They aren't demons or witches or whatever that young girl claimed. There's a logical explanation for all of this, and superstition has no place in our research."

"Of course I know that, but still… you must admit, the condition of the young man is quite… unique, to say the least. You've never seen his monthly transformation."

"Doctor, please: 'transformation?'"

"There's no other word for it! One moment he's a red-eyed, snarling beast, the next an unconscious human. It's the oddest thing! His hair even changes color!"

Whatever scoffing response the assistant had planned was lost in the sound of straining metal as the recovering patient sat up, gurgling painfully as she tried to talk through the dryness of her throat. Horrified expressions watched as the black-haired girl curled over herself on the hospital bed, her chest heaving as she sobbed dryly, her body fighting to produce enough moisture for tears. The tears she did manage were tinted red. With every word they said her heart squeezed convulsively; she knew exactly who they were talking about.

Reaching out, heedless of the IVs tugging from beneath her skin, she gaped soundlessly in an effort to produce words. Sunken eyes glared at the man and woman in long white lab coats who were staring back at her with morbid fascination, making no move to stop her movement. Pink light blurred her vision, and she realized distantly that they must have been scared of her spiritual aura. Kagome wished she had the power to harness it and give them a taste of her anguish. Because now she remembered. She remembered it _all_.

Swallowing thickly, Kagome tried to steady her gaze on her captors, but the edges were blurring alarmingly. With welling panic she found her mind filled with one word, one name, and her pain and fear and worry forced it out of her in a cracking whisper.

" _Inuyasha_!"

A faded vision of snow-white and blood-red flashed in her mind as she felt herself falling, instinctively reaching out with the hope of being caught by strong, clawed hands. Instead her head cracked against lightly-padded steel and her world returned to black.

* * *

*Author's Note:

This is going to be a multi-chapter fic - this is just the prologue. And it'll be pretty dark and kinda disturbing. It's all because of a dream I had where Inuyasha and Kagome were trapped in a scientific facility, and ever since that dream, I haven't been able to get this story out of my head. It will be shippy, but it will mostly be angst. So... buckle up. :P


	2. Chapter 2

Abnormalities, Chapter 2

* * *

"What's your name?"

"…."

"What's _his_ name?"

"…."

"Alright then, what is he?"

"…."

"How do you know him?"

"…."

"Miss Higurashi, the longer you refuse to answer, the longer you'll be in here."

Those words finally dragged a reaction from the girl as she rolled her eyes and sighed with what little voice she had. She'd answered most of these questions, under duress, when they'd first brought her here three years ago. Kagome highly doubted that no one had bothered to record it at the time – obviously they wanted to compare her stories. They thought she was lying, and Kagome was happy to keep it that way. She had told them that she was a priestess and he was a half-demon, and she felt no need to repeat herself to a deaf audience. That was all the information they were getting too, since there was no way she would _ever_ , under _any_ circumstances, reveal anything about the well. Whether or not it worked anymore was irrelevant: she wouldn't have these overzealous scientists digging up her one gateway to her other home and family and putting both timelines at risk. Since they were still asking questions, she assumed her family had been just as tight-lipped.

"How long have you had psychic abilities?"

Suppressing the urge to bring a palm to her face, Kagome stared out at the woman questioning her with a blank expression. The fact that these 'scientists' thought psychic powers were more believable than having spiritual ones was just a drop in the bucket of annoyances she'd had since she woke up from her 'coma'. After coming to on an operating table and fainting soon after, she'd been moved to a secure, padded room with nice big windows meant to create an illusion of space and freedom. With how often she was stared at through the glass, it had long since lost any possible comfort.

At the prolonged silence, the woman began tapping her pen against her clipboard, irritation apparent. Kagome nearly scoffed in an imitation of her absent best friend; what right did this woman have to be annoyed when _she_ was the one kidnapped and locked up?

"Really Miss Higurashi, you _do_ realize you're holding up all of our research, don't you? Now that you've finally woken up, we'd like to get you to more comfortable quarters, but that all depends on your cooperation." The woman heaved a sigh and crossed her legs, as though this was all very tiresome and she was anxious to get home. If Kagome had had any sympathy left, it would have flown out the non-existent window right then. "As it is, we need to run constant tests to assess your mental patterns. If you could help fill in some of the gaps in our data, we might be able to attain some result that could have you visiting the labs on a less frequent basis. With time, and with your cooperation, we may even be able to make this an out-patient situation."

Kagome's scowl dropped at those words, and a budding hope started to prick through her veins as she said finally, softly "You mean I could go home?"

The woman had the good graces to fidget as she answered in an aloof tone "Naturally you wouldn't be going back to Tokyo. There are too many variables there, and it would be too dangerous for someone with abilities such as yours to continue using them unchecked. You'd be close to one of our facilities, under our watch but in much more private surroundings."

Those twinges of hope were drawn from her body by those words faster than the needles which daily drew her blood. She hated feeling despair – _hated_ it – and yet it seemed that was all she had left anymore. No matter what these scientists promised, a gilded cage was still a cage.

"You might be able to help us with the _other_ _one_ too." Kagome was sure even her blood must have stopped pumping at those words. "Since he can't give us the answers we need, perhaps you could help fill in the blanks. You might be able to make things a little more comfortable for him as well."

The woman was staring intently at her now, waiting for her reaction to the obvious trump card, but Kagome didn't have the patience to hide her hand. "What do you mean he can't answer?"

Irrational, intense anger erupted as the woman looked at her condescendingly, as though it was a stupid question and answered "Honey, he doesn't speak. He's feral."

"Wh… what do you mean feral?"

That woman was looking at her oddly, as though the answer was common knowledge and she'd been living under a rock her whole life. To be fair, she had been in a coma. "Miss Higurashi, are you telling me that this is a new development? That he hasn't always been incapable of speech?"

Kagome could feel the air around her crackling with spiritual energy. She wondered if she had gained some control over it, since the woman across from her wasn't reacting. "What did you do to him?" There was a bite to her words that had the woman flinching, but it wasn't enough to get her answers. "All we've done is run tests, which is all we can do since the subject is too wild to reason with." She leaned towards Kagome in a gossiping sort of way and asked with wide eyes "Is it some sort of new hallucinogenic? We've tested for all known drugs but found nothing. Maybe you concocted it yourself and would like to tell us about it? I've never heard of one that could alter the body's appearance and functions so drastically, but nowadays anything is possible!"

'Anything but the truth it seems' Kagome answered bitterly in her head, glancing about the small dark room she sat in for the exit. It was behind the woman, but if she planned it right, she could make it past her and out the door before her interrogator had a chance to get out of her chair. She didn't know where she'd go afterwards, but one thing was for sure: she had to get to Inuyasha. If they'd hurt him enough to cause him to transform… she could hardly finish the thought. Kagome could remember what it felt like to have pity, and mercy, and to want to give people the benefit of the doubt, but that was before her own time, her own world where she'd grown up so happily, had betrayed her. Suddenly she felt she could understand Inuyasha and Kikyo a little bit better; this betrayal stung worse than any wound she'd ever received from a demon. Kagome was only remotely worried over the hope that Inuyasha's transformation meant he could destroy the people who had done this to them; the fact that he apparently hadn't been able to, even in his most powerful and indestructible form, caused worry to crowd out the growing hate.

She couldn't waste time worrying though; Inuyasha needed her help. The woman seated before her was in the middle of speaking when Kagome sprang from her chair. For one brief moment elation swept through her as her hand almost reached the door handle… but then the door handle was travelling upwards and her hand in the opposite direction, and she met the floor with a thud, her jaw cracking painfully against the linoleum. She heard a chair behind her scraping against the floor, and footsteps approaching before that same irritated sigh broke the silence and the woman said flatly "Don't try to run. You're only making this harder on yourself."

Kagome didn't protest or speak further as men in scrubs came in through the door and lifted her off her feet, settling her back into a wheelchair as she was removed from the room. She paid careful attention though to each and every hallway and door they passed, committing each portion to memory as she started forming plans to find her half-demon.

* * *

*Author's Note:

No Inuyasha yet - Kagome's gotta find out a little more first about where she is and where he is. Plus she doesn't realize it yet, but some interesting things happened to her during her 'coma', but she'll just have to find out about it as she goes along.

Thanks so much for all the great feedback so far, and the faves and follows! This is darker than what I normally do, but I'm excited to explore this situation and see what I can do! And when we get to Inuyasha... woo boy. Brace yourselves.


	3. Chapter 3

Abnormalities, Chapter Three

* * *

"We're going to play the clip again, and this time you'll answer the questions."

Kagome pursed her lips as the screen in front of her flickered back to life, and she was forced to watch Inuyasha once again fight a demon on the stage of her school while her own figure fretted in the background in a frilly pink dress. She cursed whatever student had thought to bring a camera to the performance. She hadn't thought about such a thing at the time. Blasting a hole through the gymnasium roof, the tiny Inuyasha on the screen then scooped her up on his arm and leapt away to freedom, leaving the Kagome watching the scene in a state of envy. What she wouldn't give for Inuyasha to come crashing into the room right then to carry her off to the Feudal Era. How she had taken him for granted….

"Now then: how does the weapon work?"

"Magic" she responded flatly; it was the truth after all.

"Miss Higurashi, we've been through this" the woman in scrubs responded tightly, "if you don't start cooperating, we'll have to perform more examinations, which will inevitably be intrusive. We don't want to resort to more risky operational procedures, but you're leaving us with little choice."

"What other explanation could there be?" Kagome asked suddenly, her tired eyes holding the older woman's, "What do you expect me to say? What other option could there possibly be but magic?"

Sighing and pinching the bridge of her nose as if staving off a headache, the nurse responded " _Obviously_ there's substance to the attack. Whatever fabrication it was that ruined the floor of the stage, it was completely obliterated by whatever it was your friend did. Since this occurred several years ago, we were unable to collect samples of any remaining ash, but it is apparent that some form of pyrotechnics were involved." The woman's expression turned stern as she looked back at Kagome and continued "We fear that whatever your friend was using may rely on radioactive or atomic energy, which I needn't tell you is highly dangerous! Understand Miss Higurashi, your friend's actions could have put your entire school… no, your entire _city_ in jeopardy."

"There's nothing 'radioactive' about his sword" Kagome said, her eyes closing for a moment as a heavy breath left her. She was so, so tired. It was as if her body could feel that it had been sleeping for years and was eager to return to its rest. She wondered if Inuyasha had felt anything like that when he'd awakened from the sealing arrow.

"You're still insisting it's just a sword."

"What else could it possibly be?" Her body slumped in the wooden chair, and Kagome felt herself nearing her wits end. She'd tried telling them the truth, but they refused to believe. She was debating feeding them lies just to get them off her back, but she couldn't even begin to think of what would be convincing to these scientists. The entire morning had been spent in this white-lit office, staring at a projection screen as video clip after video clip of her half-demon wandering Tokyo played for her viewing pleasure. She wished she'd known about these earlier… back when they were safe, when she might have actually enjoyed catching Inuyasha's antics on video. They'd never have a world like that again. "Haven't you checked him for radiation levels, if you're so worried about it?"

"We're unable to get a proper reading" the woman responded quickly, almost tensely. "There are too many variables."

"You… don't mean… you're not using radioactive testing on him are you?"

"Our methods for experimentation are none of your concern, Miss Higurashi. Besides, with his body's remarkable healing capabilities, it doesn't affect him for very long."

Kagome could feel her limbs shaking, her fatigue and stress compounding the further breaking of her heart. She could almost feel the last tether on her self-restraint snap. "You… you MONSTERS! How could you do this to him?" She rose suddenly from her chair, bracing her wobbling body on the desk beside her as the nurse watched in growing alarm. She could see pink clouding her vision and knew her spiritual aura was making itself known. "You'd better take me to him NOW, or else!"

Eyes wide as saucers, the nurse pulled a small radio from her belt, frantically speaking into it as she got up from her chair and began backing away. "Subject H is exhibiting abnormal behavior; requesting backup."

She couldn't take it anymore. With a scream of frustration, her powers exploded. Pink light flashed through the room, and everything from the walky-talky in the woman's hand to the computer still stuck on a frame of her red-clad protector sparked with electric charges. The woman screamed and dropped the device, rubbing at her hand where she'd been shocked. Kagome rued the fact that she didn't feel a shred of sympathy. As the wave of power subsided she slumped to her knees, grasping the edge of the table and gasping for breath, and the flurry of white as men in lab coats rushed into the office was the last thing she saw as she once again fell unconscious.

* * *

Little waves of light passed from her hands to fill the dark space in front of her, but it just wasn't enough. Several weeks of peaceful cooperation had allowed Kagome time to learn what she needed to, and now was her oppotunity to act. It was the middle of the night – the scientists had all gone home, and the security guards were few. One good shockwave of energy, like that day in the office, would short circuit the security cameras and undo the electronic door lock. She just couldn't get her powers to perform. Cursing under her breath, Kagome concentrated harder, her heart racing as she felt her spiritual aura prickle at her skin. She tensed, holding onto the feeling, but it wasn't enough. The pink rimming her vision faded to the black of her small room, and she groaned in frustration.

Now was the moment to break out; she couldn't wait any longer. She couldn't sit on her hands doing nothing for another day while Inuyasha suffered. He needed her, and she would be there for him, no matter what. Suddenly she felt a familiar tingling across her skin, and a thought struck her. She brought her hands to her heart, her eyes closing in concentration, and thought of Inuyasha: her need to see him, her desire to save him, and the burning love she still held for him. Pink light flooded her eye lids, and before she knew it, she could hear the camera in the corner of the room sparking, and an abrupt whirring sound told her the lock to the door had deactivated. She didn't waste another second.

Kagome knew that someone would be coming to check her room once they discovered the camera inoperative. She knew she was being quiet, knew she couldn't have been more silent if she tried, but every pat of her bare feet on the tile and every swish of her thin dress against her thighs sounded in her ears like thunder. The hallways were dark, allowing her extra cover as she hurried down now familiar passages. She still didn't know where Inuyasha was being kept – despite all her best efforts, the scientists and nurses had been tight-lipped regarding him – but she had an idea. In a dark corner near the empty operating rooms, Kagome stood still as stone and stretched out her aura as far as it could go, reaching for anything familiar, any spark of magic. She found nothing.

Spirits dampened but not deterred, she continued on in a different direction, stopping every now and then to test her surroundings for a familiar aura. Several times she was forced to backtrack as the oncoming glow of a flashlight threatened to make her presence known to a wandering guard; but there were enough hallways for her to make her escape and too few guards to pose a real threat. When she finally did find Inuyasha, escaping them would be simple.

Coming to a set of heavy exit doors, Kagome reached out yet again, and finally was rewarded with the slightest disturbance. Something was reacting to her powers. The punching click of the door lock as she pushed it open made her wince, and she hoped the security guards were far enough away that the noise would not be traceable. She didn't hold out much hope however, and slipped through quickly, finding a dark staircase suddenly under her feet. Unsure of where in the building she was, Kagome started upwards, but as the faint feel of magic disappeared, she corrected her course and raced down the concrete steps as fast as she could in the blackness. Somewhere a window leaked moonlight over the spiral of steps, just enough to let kagome see each time she passed a doorway. The feeling grew stronger with each door she passed, until finally she reached the bottom step and stumbled onto the even floor.

Breathing heavily, she paused before opening the last door. The aura beyond was strong, but she couldn't be sure it was Inuyasha's; she couldn't remember what he felt like. And now that she was here, if it really were Inuyasha down here… she wasn't sure what state she'd find him in. From what she'd gathered, he'd gone full-demon long ago. There was no telling how he'd react to her. Still… no matter what it took, she'd get him out. They couldn't stay here any longer.

The door was locked; another burst of power made having a key-code unnecessary. She let her powers loose again after stepping into the dark hallway in case any more security cameras were still rolling. The aura in the rooms beyond fluctuated in the waves of spiritual energy.

Kagome crept softly, quietly now down the main hall before her, noticing several passages leading off to the sides. She didn't stop to see whether they were other prisoners or more operating rooms. Following the pull of the aura into one of the side-halls, she noticed fewer doors, indicating larger rooms, and her heart raced; she was likely near her quarry. Suddenly a pulse off to her side caught her attention, and she stopped to see a narrow, unassuming doorway to her right. Hesitantly, her hand reached out to test the handle… it was open. The room beyond was pitch black, but feeling around the wall, she found a small light switch. Shielding her eyes from the sudden onslaught of yellow from an electric lightbulb, Kagome peeked inside to find what was nothing more than a closet, full of shelves and haphazardly placed boxes. She almost shut the door on the messy room, when a pulse resonated with her powers, and she stepped back inside with a shaky breath. That feeling was familiar. Stepping into the low room and closing the door softly behind her, Kagome began her search.

Most of the boxes were labeled with names she couldn't pronounce – odd medicines and tools that she was happy to remain ignorant of. But some of the boxes had names: family names. Finding a shelf seemingly devoted to these containers, Kagome peered closely at each one, heart thumping painfully in her chest as she feared what she might find.

She whimpered at the sight of "Higurashi Kagome", printed on copy paper and taped flat against one side of a cardboard box. She didn't even want to open it. Fingers reached for it without her approval, her arms sagging under the weight of it as she pulled it from the shelf and onto the floor in front of her. It wasn't a very tall box, nor was it remarkably heavy, but all the same, Kagome struggled to open the lid, not knowing what she'd find and afraid to find out.

Looking inside was like looking into a time capsule. It was a box of memories – precious memories that she hadn't even known existed. Reaching inside, she pulled out the items, one by one, giving each its own sacred moment. There was her scarf, the pink scarf her mother hand knitted for her – it had been a cold spring last time she'd been home. And there was the white knitted sweater to match, the outline of a cat stitched in black over the front. She smiled to see her mother's handiwork and reached back inside the box only to feel more of the knitted material; her smile fell sharply to realize what it was. She'd forgotten this. Slowly she pulled out another sweater, made of bright red yarn, and unfolded it to see the doggy outline done in white. Inuyasha had been wearing this the last day they'd been together. She could remember it now as though she were watching a movie: he'd complained about how stupid he looked even as he pulled the sweater over a white shirt and pulled her by the hand out the front door. It had been her idea to spend the day in the city, and her mother's idea to dress like a couple. Inuyasha knew what they were doing; he knew it was a date. In retrospect, he really hadn't complained all that much. Especially when they were alone. It had been a wonderful day, a memorable day, and she'd kissed his cheek once or twice because he'd just been so sweet. It was hard for him, for them both, being trapped in the modern world, but he'd been doing his best to adjust. He was trying so hard to fit in to her world. Holding the sweater now, thinking how uncomfortable he must have felt in it, she realized how much he'd given up for her. And now… how much had been taken away from him.

Setting the sweater aside and reaching in once more, Kagome's fingers brushed something cold, smooth, and her hand closed around polished beads that clacked together as she drew them out. She couldn't stop the tears anymore. How they'd gotten the necklace off, she wasn't sure. Perhaps it had stopped working when she'd slipped into her coma. The beads of subjugation pulsed to life in her grasp, and she choked back a sob. She wouldn't dream of using them on him anymore, but what they represented… his devotion to her… it hurt to see them cast aside, a reminder of their broken connection. Under the pile of their clothing, she found the cold metal of a thin chain, and she couldn't hold in the sobs as she pulled out the old locket she'd gifted her half-demon, their pictures still inside, forever capturing their fiery personalities. It was like seeing the ghost of a dead loved one; the girl in that photo was never coming back. Necklaces clutched in her hands, Kagome buried her face in Inuyasha's red sweater and let her tears soak the fabric as the reality of what had happened to them finally hit home.

A sudden pulse of energy had her gasping, wrenching her face from the bundled cloth as she looked around frantically. There was nothing in the room with her, but the feeling of something dark, something heavy inking it's way over her aura was unmistakable. There was a demon down her, and it was close by. She quickly packed the box up again, taking the smallest moment to glance inside the locket once more and press a soft kiss to Inuyasha's picture. She turned off the light before opening the door, unsure of what she'd find waiting for her in the dark hallway – but she was alone. Standing still against the closed door, she waited, and then shivered as another pulse of energy washed through her. It was coming from just down the hall.

Turning another corner, a faint glow caught Kagome's eye, and as she neared it, she saw it to be a sliver of light seeping under a closed doorway. The aura was coming from here. Grasping the door handle, the lock nearly exploded under the surge of power she sent through it, and with a grunt she pulled the thick door open, flooding the hallway with white light. It was nearly blinding in intensity, and she had to cover her eyes as she stepped inside and closed the door behind her. But she didn't need her eyes to know who else was in the room. It wasn't just the immense demonic aura anymore; the air was filled with a hellish, muffled roaring and the shrill scraping of claws against glass.

* * *

*Author's Note:

... yeah, that's the end of the chapter. *shrugs* PS I'm still working on this story :P NO STORY IS FORGOTTEN! Even if it takes me a while to get back to it.

Big thanks to those who have reviewed so far! I know this story is kind of dark and angsty, but there's light at the end of the tunnel! (Even though it's a loooong ways off)


	4. Chapter 4

Abnormalities, Chapter Four

* * *

As Kagome's eyes adjusted to the harsh light in the room, she waited for the image in front of her to disappear. She tried to blink it away, shaking her head furiously to dislodge it from her retinas. Her mind was playing tricks on her – this couldn't be real. That couldn't be Inuyasha.

Bare feet frozen to the cool tiles, she watched as the man-like creature behind the glass snapped elongated jaws at her, vicious claws digging futilely at the glass and leaving trails from his bloodied fingers. Glowing red eyes looked wildly back at her across the room, framed by purple face markings scrunched up in his snarl. There was no sort of recognition on his face, only a frenzied mix of aggression and animalistic panic; but _she_ knew _him_. No matter how much she wished it weren't true, this was her Inuyasha.

Her sore feet shuffled forward, her fear dropping away with each step closer to the rabid demon. The more she saw of him, the more her heart broke. His hair had been crudely chopped short, one side only a few inches long as though it had been shaved and grown back. He was naked, tubes and wires attached at various points on his body, many of which were torn or broken. She could see trails of blood on his arms and chest indicating where he'd ripped the foreign objects from his skin. He was as fit as ever, but covered in light bruises where blood vessels had burst and were repairing themselves. Kagome was sure that, were it not for his demonic healing abilities, he would have been covered in scars as well.

Too soon she was right up against the glass cylinder of his containment, looking up into murderous red eyes that she hadn't seen in so long. Even blood-red and ice-blue, those eyes were oddly comforting – an old acquaintance in this foreign setting. Inuyasha's clawing and roaring increased in fervor with her proximity, and Kagome's eyes pricked with tears as she suddenly realized just how far gone he was. Back when they'd been travelling, before the well closed, she'd always been so sure that she could reach him in his demon state. Even when the fake Princess Kaguya had sealed away his humanity, Kagome had held onto the faith that he would recognize her, that he would come back to himself. She doubted a kiss would be so effective now.

"Inuyasha" she said softly, not knowing if he could even hear her. A twitching movement caught her eye, and her gaze darted up to see the dog-ears that she loved so much. A hissing breath left her at the sight of a precisely cut indent on his left ear where a skin sample had been taken. "Oh Inuyasha… I'm so…" the words caught in her throat, all of the apologies and empty promises welling up in her chest and weighing her body down. What could she possibly say to him now? How could she ever make up for this? All the 'sorry's in the world couldn't undo what had been done to him, or to her. If only she'd been more careful, if only she'd never taken him into town, if only the well hadn't trapped him in a world where he didn't belong….

Sinking down to her knees, Kagome brought her hands to the glass as if trying to reach out to him through the barrier. He crouched down as well, keeping his eyes level with her as he coiled into a defensive stance, a warning growl taking place of his earlier roars. She must have been less threatening to him on her knees.

Leaning her head against the cold glass, Kagome took in the room around them: high ceilings, fluorescent lights, computers and monitors running constant stats on the man in the test tube. There was a low table with iron bars crossing it; she could tell from the placement that it was meant to hold down a body. The room was clean, sterile, cold and indifferent, more like a test chamber than a doctor's office. There were no friendly faces here, no chats about symptoms or health concerns. Inuyasha was a lab rat treated with all the care and attention of a stripped motor. Looking back at her vulnerable half-demon, his tortured body on graphic display as though he were some wax exhibit in a museum… it was far, far too much, and Kagome let sobs wrack her body as she slumped against the glass, screwing her eyes shut so she wouldn't have to see him anymore.

Lost in her tears, Kagome didn't notice the shockwave of pink light that spread out from her body. She couldn't hear the sparking machinery over her heaving cries. It wasn't until the glass supporting her face began to slip away that she realized the lock on the beast's cage had been broken. Fear flashed briefly through her, but then she heard the horrible whimpers and her eyes found the demon curled up on the bloody floor.

She'd nearly purified him.

On her hands and knees she scrambled into the open glass case, reaching out for Inuyasha before she could think to stop herself, her only thoughts a biting stream of 'What have I done?!'

The moment her hand touched his shoulder, he whipped back, baring his teeth and seething. But his eyes… his irises were gold. For a brief moment those gold eyes looked past her, hazed with pain and unseeing, before they turned vibrant blue again and the whimpering stopped. His demon blood was taking over to heal his body again. It was then that Kagome realized the hard truth of it all: this time, his transformation was voluntary. Even in half-demon form, he couldn't handle the pain and stress of the experiments. If she tried to change him back now… he might die.

Her somber thoughts snapped up into panic as suddenly demon Inuyasha was upon her. Her back pressed up against the inside wall of the cylindrical case, Kagome sat still as a statue as Inuyasha's face pressed in close to hers, an animalistic growl boiling in his throat while his red eyes roved her body. She could hear him sniffing the air, absently noting that the underside of his nose was now black like a dog's. He lunged at her, and Kagome nearly cried out as his muzzle was suddenly against her neck… but the cold wet feel of his nose moving over her skin told her that he was only trying to better catch her scent, no doubt dulled by the sterile facility. An almost foreign feeling of hope began to swell in her heart as he sniffed at her; he wasn't attacking, he was calming down. Something in her scent had caught his attention, and she could only hope it was recognition and not hunger that had made him so distracted.

After the initial investigation his nose ventured further, from her collar bone, down her sternum, then pressing into the thin cloth between her breasts with a strong sniff. A flash of embarrassment swept through Kagome, only to be compounded when he darted back up to flick his tongue against her throat, tasting the salt on her skin. She knew he was more demon than human now, an animal relying on his senses to read the world around him, but still… he was still her Inuyasha, and she couldn't help the pleasant tingling of her skin at his touch. Her heart began to thud almost painfully as she registered how close he was, how warm he was, how unbelievably, _unbearably_ badly she'd missed him. His ears twitched as her hear rate picked up, and without warning he laid his head against her chest, his flickering ear pressed over her beating heart.

Inuyasha's growling picked up again, but it wasn't the threatening sound it had been before. It was strong and rumbling and had more voice to it, almost as if he were trying to talk. Tentatively at first, Kagome brought her hands up, laying one across his back as the other lost itself in his shortened white hair. He didn't jerk away as he had before; instead he brought his hands to rest on her thighs, bracing himself as he leaned further into her warmth. Kagome smiled. Stroking her fingers through the short strands of silver, rubbing little circles onto his clammy skin, she laid her head down over his and held him to her heart. With every puff of his breath against her chest, it felt as though piece of her heart was stitched back together. She'd come down here to save him; she hadn't realized how much she needed saving too.

"S-sa…aafe."

Her fingers stilled in his hair as his rasping voice met her ears. Had… had he just….

As if to answer her unspoken question, the demon spoke again, the word somewhat garbled by his long fangs and enlarged jaws but unmistakable none the less. "Saaafe…."

For a moment Kagome sat in silence, processing what he had said, but then her half-demon collapsed atop her, crushing her under the dead-weight of his muscled form, and she understood. Glancing down at the bright demon markings on his face, watching his back rise and fall with deep, steady breaths, she knew what he meant. Her arms around him, her scent beneath him, he finally felt safe enough to sleep.

* * *

*Author's Note:

Okay, I felt really bad about that cliff-hanger, and I wanted to see the next part as much as the next person, so here it is. I was just too excited to reunite them, I couldn't help myself! (also sorry but they're not out of the woods just yet :P)


	5. Chapter 5

Abnormalities, Chapter 5

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The heavy slam of metal on concrete woke Kagome with a violent start, her heart pounding as her foggy brain registered her surroundings. She was in a glass chamber she didn't recognize, a wall against her back and something warm and heavy draped across her body. Wisps of white caught her eye, and she glanced down to see familiar fuzzy dog-ears that had memories from earlier flooding her mind. A pitiful whimper bubbled up in her throat as she recalled the condition her dearest friend had been in when she found him. Trembling hands came up to tilt his head back slightly from where it rested against her collarbone, and she bit her lip to see that not only was he still fast asleep, but he was still full-demon. Some subconscious thought had goaded her into thinking his demon blood might recede after his body had time to rest and heal, but although his wounds had all closed up and the bruises vanished, he still didn't feel safe enough to revert back. Fear gripped her at the thought; she trusted the demon's instincts, and that meant they were in danger. Dragging her eyes away from his, across and through thick metal bars that she was sure weren't there before, Kagome saw the tall, blocky shapes of humans in lab coats, the white of the fabric painfully bright in the already glaring room.

"Remarkable…" a man at the forefront whispered, eyes wide and smiling like a kid at Christmas. Kagome recognized him: he was the first doctor she saw after waking up from her coma. He was in charge of Inuyasha's research. He was to blame.

"Get out" she seethed, her voice hoarse but strong. The doctor continued to smile.

"I'm surprised you want us to leave you in there, considering how dangerous he can be. However… perhaps he is no danger to you."

"He'd never hurt me" she snapped, her arms coming up to wrap around the sleeping demon and hold him closer. He grunted in his sleep, turning to nuzzle into her neck before settling down again. Kagome's face warmed and she held him closer.

"It seems to be that way…" the doctor said again, linking his hands behind his back as he took a few steps toward them.

Panic welled up inside the girl and she gasped out "Don't come any closer!" The doctor sighed patiently and continued at a slow pace, until he was only a few feet away from the bars. Glancing about quickly, Kagome saw that a steel cage had been dropped around the open glass tube, and realized that was the thudding noise that had awoken her. Apparently they hadn't been able to repair the electronics yet, and had resorted to a back-up. The doctor stood a few paces back, watching the two in the cage intently with fascination clear on his face. At the new proximity, Kagome could read a name on the ID card hanging from his neck: Dr. Honbu. She etched the name into her memory so she'd always know who to hate for this.

"Unfortunately" Dr. Honbu began in a casual tone, "we were unable to remove you from Subject K before dropping the emergency gate. We won't be able to remove it until the system is back online, so you'll be stuck here for a while." Looking over the two of them once more, a knowing grin spread across his face as he said "Though it doesn't seem like you'll mind, from the looks of it!"

"That's not _any_ of your business" she said darkly; how dare he make light of this! She was distracted for a moment by a soft flickering against her chin as Inuyasha's ears twitched. His breathing was still steady, if not far quieter. If it weren't for the feel of his chest expanding and compressing against her, she wouldn't have known he was breathing at all.

"Actually, since you're both under my care, it _is_ my business" Dr. Honbu replied, leaning down slightly and craning his neck for a closer look at Inuyasha.

"Care?" Kagome hissed, "you call this care?"

"You're both alive, aren't you?" He replied, peering over at her glaring eyes.

"I'd hardly call this living."

Dr. Honbu shrugged, kneeling down to her eye level and reaching into his voluminous lab coat. At the sight of a syringe in his hand, Kagome tensed.

"Relax, this isn't for you. I merely want to test our friend's blood levels to see if his current emotional state has had any physiological effect on-"

"Don't you touch him!"

The doctor paused, eyes widening at the ferocity in the young girl's voice, but soon found his easy smile again as he said "It won't hurt him a bit, I can assure you. He shouldn't even feel it. Now, if you'll just hold him steady so I can get a sample…"

"You're out of your mind if you think I'm going to help you do anything to him." Kagome was seething; she hadn't felt this angry since they'd faced Naraku.

"Miss Higurashi, be reasonable." The doctor's hand reached out toward her as he spoke, attempting to reach through the bars and perhaps sway her with the more personal contact. His hand never reached her though, as suddenly a figure loomed up between the two humans, and vicious snarling once again filled the room. The doctor fell back in a sputtering heap on the floor, not having realized the subject was awake and aware.

Kagome had thought she felt him tensing as the doctor approached, but he'd remained calm and silent, so she'd hoped it meant they were in no immediate threat. Not even the syringe had been enough to prompt an action from him; but the moment the doctor tried to touch her, potentially putting her at risk, he'd sprung. Inuyasha knelt over her, one hand bracing the floor beneath them, the other holding her tightly and possessively against his bare chest. Even when the doctor stood and silently took a few steps back, the demon continued to squeeze her tightly to him. Kagome's heart swelled at his show of protectiveness; even fully transformed as he was, he wouldn't let anything happen to her. "Inuyasha" she whispered, and though he didn't turn to look at her, she could hear his growling fade. Hesitantly, she lifted a hand to his cheek, lightly rubbing a purple stripe before applying faint pressure to turn his red eyes down to meet hers. "It's alright, Inuyasha" she said softly, noting how his red and blue eyes stayed trained on her mouth as if to help him decipher her words. She didn't know if he could fully understand her, but she hoped her tone could at least help calm him down. "I'm here… you're safe."

"Your control over him is incredible!"

Kagome tore her eyes from her half-demon to glare at the doctor, saying snippily "It's not 'control', it's trust."

He merely shrugged in response, returning the syringe to an inside pocket and linking his hands behind his back. "In any case, Miss Higurashi, while we work to get the computer systems running again, you'll be staying in there with Subject K. We'll be monitoring the both of you, and I would highly encourage your open cooperation. We have other means to get what we want from you both." At his words two men in technician's shirts stepped up from the back, strange guns in their hands that Kagome had never seen before. "It took a few tries, but we finally came up with a sedation formula strong enough to knock out your friend. We have a few weaker formulas personally tailored to you as well. Unless you'd like to test out their potency, I'd drop the attitude."

"Monsters" Kagome rasped, her throat closing as she fought to keep a level head. This was all a bad dream… it was one big, long nightmare, and she'd wake up tomorrow morning to see Inuyasha sitting at the foot of her bed, half-demon and smirking.

Dr. Honbu rolled his eyes, his previous happy demeanor almost gone as he said tersely "I've got work to do, Miss Higurashi. I'll let you know when I have need of either of you. I'll be getting your assistance whether or not you offer it. In the meantime, you can continue to reacquaint yourselves. I'm sure there's much we could glean from observation."

"You… you mean you're going to just sit there and watch us?"

"Someone will, yes. We've not seen him react so calmly in all the time he's been here. Had we known you'd have this effect on him, we might have brought you together sooner."

Kagome shivered at the implications – she hadn't meant to help them. The thought that her actions might lead to further experimentation on Inuyasha chilled her to the bone, and she determined to get them both away to safety before anything like that could happen. In the meantime, she'd be his physical barrier from anymore prying hands.

Pulling an electronic device from his pocket, Dr. Honbu turned his attention to his research, and the doctors and technicians around him dispersed to their own tasks. At the sudden bustling movement in the room, Inuyasha backed away, a growl building in the back of his throat. For a split second Kagome panicked, fear gripping her as he left her side, but then he pulled her back along with him and the fear vanished. Cradling her in his powerful arms, Inuyasha retreated to the back wall of the glass enclosure, as far away from the humans filling the room as they could get. Once his back hit the glass, he settled against it, pulling Kagome tightly to him as his muscled legs locked her in on either side. Her face settled into the crook of his neck, and with his heated body surrounding her, she felt security for the first time since waking up. Instinctively she knew that just as she'd sworn to herself to protect him from these lunatics, he'd give his everything to protect her as well. He'd always told her he would. Kagome was just letting herself get comfortable, when a chuckle rose up over the hum of workers, and the amused voice of Dr. Honbu filled the room.

"What a break through! Perhaps we should open the file again on researching his sexual behaviors, since he's failed to respond to anything in the past. Amazing what a young girl can do. Who knows? We might even be able to do some reproductive testing later!" Other scientists near him snickered in agreement, and Kagome felt her skin crawl at the implications. She was well aware of Inuyasha's nude state; his skin burned hers at every spot they met, but she took no pleasure in his public humiliation. Kagome burrowed closer to him, as though to shield him from their voyeuristic gazes. These men and women were so simple-minded. She knew why he kept her close; she was his shelter, his lifeline. They were all the other had in this hell. Even in his instinct-driven demon state, he'd never be foolish enough to engage in any sort of sexual act in the presence of his captors. It would make him vulnerable, and survival was at the forefront of all his thoughts: his survival, and hers. Kagome smiled to realize that despite all their years of research and experimentation, she still knew the half-demon better than these researchers did.

"You're wasting your time" she said, her breath ghosting over Inuaysha's collarbone, causing his growl to drop and his arms to tighten around her, "he won't perform for you. He's no animal."

"We'll see about that, Miss Higurashi. We'll just wait and see."

* * *

*Author's Note:

Kind of a short chapter, sorry. Also yeah they're not escaping yet. Double sorry. :P


	6. Chapter 6

Abnormalities, Chapter 6

* * *

In another life, it would have been perfect.

For the past three days she'd spent with Inuyasha, they'd shared a closeness that would have sent the old her into a flurry of giggles and bashful little smiles. She spent most of the day in his arms, whispering stories and secrets to him while he listened without interruption. At night he would lay her down beside him, locking her in his limbs like a favorite teddy bear while his soft rumbling growl lulled her to sleep. They slept together, ate together, even showered together in complete ease with the other's proximity. The old her would have thought it a dream come true… had it happened back then.

But they weren't back in Tokyo, in her room on her fluffy pink bed or in the comfort of her steamy bath. This wasn't a dream, but a nightmare.

She spent the days in his arms to keep the scientists away, whispering old memories to his attentive dog ears to keep herself sane and help him relax. He didn't respond because he couldn't. They ate together because the only way he _would_ eat was if the food (usually rarely cooked meat as his body responded strongly to the protein) was first passed to her through the bars and she presented it to him. He'd wait until she took a bite first, and only then would he devour it. Dr. Honbu thought he was screening it through her, making sure it wasn't poisoned or otherwise dangerous; Kagome knew he would have smelt if there was a problem with the meat. He just refused to take sustenance before she did.

Showering together was purely practical, not the romantic rendezvous she'd daydreamed of in the past. Hard torrents of scalding water would rain down on them from the ceiling of the chamber, as the floor dropped and formed grating to drain the runoff. That same floor was equipped with a pressure-activated hole near the wall for bodily waste, which in turn activated the showers. The scientists liked to keep things clean – a fact which Kagome kept forgetting. After the fifth surprise shower, she'd sworn loud enough to scare a few lab workers, but Inuyasha's responding expression was so close to amusement that Kagome quickly forgot her anger.

At first she'd kept her dress on through the washes, but even her warm half-demon, who could dry himself with a quick doggy-shake, could not protect her from the chill of her soaked clothes. Resignedly she'd peeled off the dress and tossed it through the bars, scampering back in hospital-standard bra and panties to Inuyasha's waiting arms. Her wet dress was wordlessly collected and an hour later returned to her, clean and dry. It was a luxury, really, to have them clean and return her clothing; she knew they wouldn't have cared if she went stark naked like her half-demon, but she refused to let them objectify her like they'd done to him. As long as they were around, she'd do whatever it took to remind them that she was an individual with a conscience all her own… and so was Inuyasha. But her efforts went without reward, and when night came she was left in their shared cage while all the workers retired for a good night's sleep in a soft, warm bed.

Despite the injustice of it all, Kagome was glad to see them go in the evenings; for her, the nights were the best part of the day. Her demon would push on her shoulders with surprising gentility until she was prone on the hard floor, before stretching out alongside her and wrapping her in a full-body embrace. One arm would pillow her head, the other draped across her waist as his large hand splayed over her back to keep her warm and close. Their legs would tangle together, and her face would find the comforting crook of his neck as she pretended that he knew what he was doing: that this was a moment of intimate connection and not simply a means to keep her safe. She didn't say a word to him at night, having whispered herself hoarse during the daytime, but she indulged herself a little in placing a kiss to his throat as she drifted off, smiling as he nuzzled his nose into her hair in response.

The following mornings he would be crouched over her, nudging her awake before the footsteps coming down the hall ever got close enough for her human hearing to catch.

"Good morning H, good morning K."

Kagome glowered at the chipper doctor, his smile unfazed. She'd discovered only yesterday just what their designations stood for, and it still made her fume. Hers was simple enough, 'H' for Higurashi; but they hadn't known Inuyasha's name, and wouldn't have cared if they had, so they'd called him 'K', or more specifically, 'K-9'. A funny little play on an English term for the doctors and nurses to smile at whenever they checked his lab results. Kagome hated them all the more for it.

"We've got a lot to do today" Dr. Honbu said jovially, looking over his electronic device, "The door on the containment chamber will be fixed this afternoon, which means that we'll finally be able to lift the safety gate." He looked up to meet Kagome's wary gaze and chuckled. "Looks like the honeymon's coming to an end!"

"I'm not leaving him" Kagome stated firmly, the edge to her voice causing Inuyasha to growl as he held her.

"If you want to help him, you will. Not that you have a say in the matter – that's why we have the tranquilizers. But you could always make things easier for everyone and separate from him yourself."

"Why should I?" As if to prove her determination to stay, she rose up on her knees and wrapped her arms around the demon's neck, holding herself tightly to his collar.

"Because" Dr. Honbu answered, his voice a bit strained in response to her defiance, "Tonight's a new moon, and the sooner we get him on life support, the better."

It was as if the bottom dropped out of her stomach; nothing had ever struck fear into her heart quite as well as the words 'new moon', and that was back in her old life. Here, now, in the condition he was in and the threat of his surroundings… she wasn't surprised to hear 'life support' in connection with the inevitable transformation.

Her bravado gone, her thoughts consumed only with concern for her soon-to-be-human friend, Kagome said in a shaky voice "How will he be?"

"It's hard to say" Dr. Honbu muttered, his voice somber for the first time, "We've gotten considerably better at preempting any complications, but there's always something we can't foresee. His body has healed itself superficially, but in his current state, he's incredibly sleep deprived and malnourished. Oh you can't tell from looking at him," the doctor responded quickly to Kagome's shocked face, "but once he changes, those factors take their toll on his body. It's incredible: rapid deterioration of muscle and fat, loss of bone tissue, rupturing of veins, all within a few hours! Amazing how he can go from being the strongest man in the world to the most brittle. And not just his body, but his mind – quite a few times he's been thrown into seizures or violent outbursts, probably caused by the sleep deprivation."

"But… but he's been sleeping! He… he's been getting better!"

Dr. Honbu's expression was so patronizing that Kagome was stunned speechless, and in a pitying voice he said "Miss Higurashi, while it is true that _you_ sleep well during the night, your companion doesn't even try. He may shut his eyes once or twice, but the rest of the time, he's awake and _watching_ you."

Her head snapped over to face Inuyasha with surprise and worry, as if he could verify what the doctor had said, but he simply looked at her in confusion and bumped her nose with his. She didn't mind him watching her sleep in the least – he'd done it back in their old lives – but he needed rest too. It was then that she realized what the doctor hadn't said, and she turned a fierce glare on the man as she ground out "You're watching us sleep?"

"Did you honestly think that we don't monitor everything? What's the point of scientific observation if you're going to cut pieces out?"

"I'll cut pieces out of YOU if you don't get us out of this… this _test tube_!"

Rolling his eyes, Dr. Honbu continued in a bored tone "In any case, we need to get _you_ out of there, and _him_ restrained on the table so we can hook up the necessary equipment. He'll start exhibiting symptoms once the sun begins its descent, and that only gives us a window of a few hours to make the necessary adjustments before 'go time'."

Turning to face her demon once more, staring into his red and blue gaze that was so much more comforting than she'd ever thought it could be, Kagome made a quick decision. At this moment, there was nothing she could do to help him. The doctors had created this mess, and they would have to fix it. But once the moonless night had passed, and he had his demon blood to keep his body going again… she would not allow the cycle to continue. There was no way in hell she'd hand him over to be abused and pushed to his limits again just so a group of frazzled scientists could scramble to save his life from the strain they'd so happily inflicted. Once he changed back, they were getting out.

"Doctor… I'll help you."

Dr. Honbu looked up from his computer screen with evident surprise. This was no charity offer though, and Kagome added quickly "On one condition: I get to stay with him."

Crossing his arms, Dr. Honbu said with a frown "You're not exactly in a position to ask for favors, Miss Higurashi."

"And you're not going to get much farther in your research without some needed answers, Doctor."

That got his attention; his lips became a thin line, his brows pinching slightly, and Kagome knew she'd won. She didn't have any answers for them, not beyond what she'd already shared anyways, but the lie slipped easily past her lips without the slightest tug on her conscience. "I still don't want to tell you anything, but right now his safety is more important than any of our secrets. I just…" at this she turned away, her demeanor becoming vulnerable as she continued "I've been away from him so long, and the thought of leaving his side when he's so vulnerable… please, I'll tell you anything you want, just let me stay with him."

Shrugging, Dr. Honbu said flippantly "If you insist, I think we can arrange that." Kagome didn't miss the smug smirk gracing his face as he turned away, and she was hard pressed not to mirror the expression. The bastard thought he'd won, but he was just making things easier for his prize specimen to break free.

A gentle nudge to her cheek drew Kagome's attention back to the demon in her arms, and she smiled softly at the worry creasing his face. He was the one in danger, and yet he still put her needs above his own. In a silent 'thank you', Kagome reached up with one hand and swept her fingers through his chopped white hair before moving a little higher to caress a silky ear. The growl he produced was more like a purr as he dropped his face to her neck, burying his nose against her skin to take in her calming scent. Kagome smiled sadly as she realized how dry his dog-like nose was; even in half-demon form, his sensitive nose had been cold and wet, and its current state signaled the fragile state of his body. With a worried sigh, Kagome shifted to more comfortably situate Inuyasha against her shoulder as she caught his other ear and gave it the same massaging treatment, trying to calm herself as well as the demon as she awaited the repair of their cell and their removal from it.

* * *

*Author's Note:

:3 Tune in next time for trouble!

And a big thanks to the readers, favoriters, followers, and reviewers! You're all lovely!


	7. Chapter 7

Abnormalities, Chapter 7

* * *

"It's time, Miss Higurashi."

Kagome peered with bleary eyes at the scientists surrounding their cage. She'd worried herself into a dreamless sleep, and was still wrapped up in her half-demon blanket. Sweeping her eyes from the skin of his shoulders, its color lighter than it should have been, she locked her gaze with the red and blue one watching her intently. Leaving him didn't sit well with her, but she could already see the signs of his weakening powers; an extra crease of pain between his brows, a lighter tint of purple to the stripes on his cheeks, heightened tension in his jaw. If she waited any longer, it might be too late.

"What do you need me to do?" Kagome tried to keep her usual attitude out of the way, not yet trusting Dr. Honbu to keep his word. Inuyasha needed her beside him during his transformation, and she wouldn't jeopardize that; for now, she'd be on her best behavior.

"There's no easy way to do this," Dr. Honbu mused, tapping a pen to his clipboard as his eyes surveyed the cage, "Tranquilizers would put too much strain on his body at this point… we could have used them earlier, but you were in the way." He gave her a scolding look, and Kagome almost laughed. Was that supposed to make her feel guilty? "We'll have to resort to sleeping gas, and the formula is too strong for a human. The problem is, you can't leave the chamber with the gate down. If you want him to receive his treatment, you'll have to make him stay inside when we raise the gate."

A thrill ran through Kagome when she realized her opportunity: the gate would lift, and the door to the glass chamber would be open for both of them. For a brief moment she contemplated skipping straight to the finale, getting them both out before the sun had time to go down… but the thought of how Inuyasha might be once his human blood took over kept her focused. First the doctors would fix their mistake – then there'd be time to make them pay.

"You're putting a lot of trust in me" Kagome said softly, her expression wary, "How do you know I'll be able to control him once the gate's up?"

Dr. Honbu shrugged and said lightly "Because you'll have to. If he tries to escape, we'll fire the tranquilizers, and the sedative won't have worn off by the time he changes form. The dosage will likely kill him, and none of us want that. After all, there's only so much one can learn from a cadaver."

Nodding to one of his assistants and turning back to his desk, the doctor called over his shoulder "Get ready, Subject H – we're raising the gate in one minute. We'll leave the glass open just enough for you to get through once it's up."

Nervous anticipation flooded Kagome as she pulled away from her silent half-demon, raising herself on shaky limbs and crossing the cold floor to the open glass panel. Whirring filled the chamber, and the door slid shut as she approached, stopping with just enough space for her to slip through sideways. She heard Inuyasha rise as well, but couldn't bring herself to look back at him. It all felt like a dirty betrayal, and Kagome was sure that if she were to look at him now, her resolve would shatter. Out of the corner of one eye she saw a lab attendant counting down on his fingers, signaling to someone across the room at a control panel, and just as the last finger dropped, there was the resonating thud of a deadbolt unlocking, and the cage began to lift. Kagome watched it rise in slow motion: bathing first her feet in unfettered light, then her knees, the hem of her dress, her waist, shoulders, her nose – and she moved forward as a sob caught in her throat.

A strong hand caught her wrist before she could clear the doorway, and the room collectively held its breath. He made no further move though than to tighten his grasp on her, and painfully slowly, Kagome turned her head to look back at him. She knew she shouldn't have; the moment she saw the hurt, the confusion, the loss on his face, she wished he'd just run her through with his claws that first night. It would have hurt less than this.

"I-Inuyasha, I…"

"S-staaaay…" His mouth formed the words with difficulty, though his long fangs weren't as impeding as they'd been before.

Kagome felt her heart clench at the raw need in his voice. He hadn't spoken for days; speech wasn't something she usually associated with his demon form. And yet in desperation he had forced his mind to call upon a word to keep her there.

"I… I can't" she whispered, turning back to lay her hands against his chest, his skin growing clammy with the increasing strain of the moon's pull. "I have to go, only for a little while. Inuyasha… you need to stay here. Please… you have to stay!"

He watched her with intense concentration, and she wondered if he could fully understand what she was saying. His arms came up around her, holding her in place, and she squirmed to get away. Time was running out, and she was his only hope – but suddenly she was pulled up against him, lifted in his arms as he pressed her to his body with magnetic force. His mouth found the crook of her neck, licking, nuzzling and nipping in a canine display of affection that brought a flush to her face. Her arms were pinned at her sides in his grasp; she could neither reciprocate nor push him away, and she didn't know which she'd pick given the choice. Between meetings of his lips to her skin, she could hear him muttering, trying to form words again, eventually succeeding as he breathed out 'safe' and 'stay' repeatedly. His broken murmurings pierced her heart, and she realized what a difference her presence must have made to him. For days now he'd been free of experimentation, free of needles and IVs and strange fluids and uncaring hands, and now the bringer of his reprieve was willingly trying to leave him to the mercy of his captors. She knew she meant more to him than just a safeguard, if his fervent attentions to her neck were any indication, but they both knew that once she stepped out of that test tube, there was no guarantee. For all they knew, it could mean another three years apart.

And yet, it was a risk she had to take… for him, for her, for the both of them. He would survive this night, she would make sure of it; she only hoped their trust would survive as well.

Leaning towards a pinned back dog ear, Kagome whispered softly "Let me go, Inuyasha… let me go. I have to leave. You have to stay." She repeated those words to no avail… but then she felt him shaking, and slowly he lowered her back to her feet. Pulling away, she met sorrowful red eyes framing gold instead of blue – the transformation was underway. Bringing her hands to his light lavender markings, she pulled him down until she could reach his lips, kissing him with aching tenderness while he remained still. It wasn't until she pulled away and began to back out of the chamber that he moved, and instinctively she raised a hand to stop him. "Stay" she warned, before she had time to realize what she'd said. The word sounded in her ear as a twisted echo of his former pleas, reformed into something demeaning and ugly, and she wished she hadn't said it. But somehow the command worked, as if he'd still had a binding rosary around his neck, and Kagome didn't realize she'd stepped out of the chamber until the glass slid shut between them. As thick and impenetrable as it was, it was still unable to block the pained confusion in the red-gold gaze across from her. Jets of opaque gas filled the chamber suddenly, obscuring Kagome's view of him, until a clawed hand broke through the haze, hitting the wall and sliding down as the demon inside hit the ground with a thud.

She dropped down beside him, reaching for that hand until the smoke was drawn out of the chamber and the glass slid open for Inuyasha to be extracted.

He was strapped onto the metal table in the room, his unconscious form locked in place as lab attendants hurried to hook him up to an army of machines. A thin blanket was thrown over his body as he began to shiver in his sleep, but his arms and chest remained exposed to the chilled hospital air as tubes and wires were fed into his skin. Kagome hovered at the edge of the flurry of activity, waiting on pins and needles for the moment when the change would happen. The monitors all read five o'clock, but without a window to the outside, she couldn't be sure when the sun would finally sink. As the movement died down, she dared to inch closer to the unresponsive demon, noting how his short hair looked a little darker and his markings lighter.

"We're ready to stabilize his vitals when the change happens" Dr. Honbu said behind her. She jumped, inching away from the man as he approached to check on his subject. "We have to be quick, or his body will damage itself more than we're prepared to fix it. However…" he mused, glancing between the machines and the man on the metal slab, "He seems to be in much better condition than at other transformations. I suppose it wasn't such a bad idea to leave you with him, eh?" He smiled at Kagome, who bit her lip to keep from ruining his good mood. It turned out to be the right thing to do as the doctor motioned for one of his assistants to bring a chair for the girl, allowing Kagome to sit beside Inuyasha, as close as she could get amidst the jungle of IVs. She reached out for his hand, but was stopped as Dr. Honbu's voice cut through the beeping to warn "I wouldn't do that if I were you. He's been known to become quite violent during the change – I doubt he'd recognize you to keep from slicing off your fingers or crushing your bones. And once he's human, well… _you'd_ most likely crush _him_."

He laughed to himself, walking away to check on another monitor, and Kagome retracted her hand, clenching her fingers together to keep from reaching out for him like she wished she could.

An hour passed in near silence, the beeping machines and clicking keyboards lulling Kagome to sleep as she watched Inuyasha's chest rise and fall. Her head was beginning to nod as another sound broke the stillness, and suddenly every face in the room turned to the trapped demon as he began to groan and whine. His teeth were clenched in a grimace and his breath became rasping as his body began to change. Around her, scientists were rushing into place at each machine, shouting commands and responses as they prepared to treat the human; but Kagome tuned them all out, watching in worried fascination as one face she loved became another. For a split second the markings faded, Inuyasha's voice rising to a pained cry as for a moment he was but a half-demon again. Kagome's heart clenched at the sight of that most familiar form – that was the Inuyasha she'd been longing to see again – but then his ears began to shrink and reshape, and with a shuddering exhalation, his black-haired head lulled to the side in unconsciousness. The machines roared to a new level of excitement, a furious quiet hovering over the scientists and doctors as they worked. Kagome watched horrified as purple bruises blossomed over his skin at every point of a needle's entry. As his breathing began to falter, a tube was inserted down his throat forcing air in and out of his lungs. His coloring became pale, and Kagome was sure that the slightest touch on his skin would bruise it. For all his injured nights, for all his near-fatal battles with demons, he'd never looked so near death.

Kagome didn't realize how frozen she'd been with shock until a firm hand met her shoulder, and she gasped violently as her startled eyes met Dr. Honbu. "He's stable now, so we'll move on to monitoring him. This is probably the smoothest transition we've seen… no doubt the readings from this will be insightful. If you don't mind, we'll need you to move so we can finish gathering data." And without another word he pulled her chair aside, lab workers immediately crowding in front of her as they rushed to take blood and tissue samples. No one paid her any mind as she sat behind them, completely forgotten. They didn't see her hateful glare, or the spark of pink as her emotions ran away with her before being forcefully tempered down. There would be time for retribution later, she reminded herself. For now, she was forced to wait for her turn at his side.

* * *

*Author's Note:

I meant to get a little farther than this, but I'm trying to keep these chapters at a uniform length, and I don't wanna rush things... plush I figured y'all deserved an update. :P

Next time: Doctor Honbu tries to explain himself, and Kagome makes a tough decision.

(also I'm working on all my other multi-chapter fics too so just fyi - none of my inu fics are abandoned. They're just taking forever.)


	8. Chapter 8

Abnormalities, Chapter 8

* * *

"Why are you doing all this?"

Dr. Honbu didn't even look up from his monitor at Kagome's question, streams of bright blue data reflecting across his eyes in the dimmed lights of the lab. They'd turned off the overhead lamps for fear of damaging the retinas of their sleeping patient, but the room was still full of visual noise.

"I hardly think it necessary to explain the scientific purposes of our research when I know it will be so wholly misinterpreted and rejected" he answered, casually flicking a few buttons and nodding his approval at the resulting screen. Leaning back in his chair, he glanced over at the young woman with a smile and said jauntily "as if a high school drop-out such as yourself could ever understand anyways."

Kagome sat fuming, hands gripping the table on which Inuyasha was laid, still unconscious and deathly pale. The attendants had long since left her to herself, so she figured she was in no immediate danger of being torn from his side, and dared to speak her mind. "I wouldn't be a 'drop-out' if it weren't for you people."

"No?" Dr. Honbu smirked, standing from the computer to approach with predatory eyes. "We did our research Miss Higurashi, believe me, and even before our interference, it seems you were more interested in gadding about with Mister Monster here than in studying."

"Don't call him that" she seethed, but secretly panic was setting in. Just how closely had they been watched? She had assumed they knew nothing about the well and her traveling from all the questions, but… just how sure could she be?

"At any rate" the doctor continued blithely, "our operations are far too complex to be explained and appreciated by such young people, so there's really no sense in bothering to try." He tucked his pen into the black fringe behind one ear, placing his clipboard behind his back and out of reach; all seemed to indicate that he was done with his research for the moment, and likely hoped that their conversation had come to an end. But to Kagome, it was the perfect opening.

"What's there to understand?" She asked, incredulous and anxious at the man's proximity, unknowingly leaning over Inuyasha's sleeping form as though to shield him from the scientist, "You kidnap a couple teenagers with strange powers, and treat them like lab rats until you find a way to use that power for yourself! It's the same old story it's always been!"

"Just like I said, misinterpreting and oversimplifying." Sighing in the same frustrated way her math teachers always used to do, Dr. Honbu pulled a rolling chair from a nearby work station, and moved to the other side of the operating table. Kagome wondered if he realized the situation it put him in; every time she had to look at him now, she was also looking at Inuyasha, needles in his skin and a tube in his mouth, bruises and blood blotting ghostly skin that twitched and convulsed every so often. The longer Dr. Honbu sat there lecturing her, the more she'd hate him, and the stronger her power would be when it came time to escape.

"I'm sure you're wondering" the doctor said in a low voice, glancing down at his patient and then back to Kagome with steely eyes, "how we can seemingly be so cruel to someone who appears so human."

Kagome fought back a retort that right now he _was a human_ , and that either way it _didn't matter_ , but managed to keep her response to a short "it may have crossed my mind."

The doctor nodded gravely, for once looking as though something were weighing on his conscience, but Kagome knew better than to believe he had one. "I can understand how, on such a surface level, seeing all this would be hard to stomach. But as you get older, you come to understand… the world is bigger than you are. There's a concept we like to refer to as 'the needs of the many', and suffice it to say, what we're learning from your friend here is going to help millions."

A sick feeling settled in Kagome's stomach; the idea that Inuyasha's suffering was being used 'for the greater good' making her hate her own world even more. Inuyasha had already saved lives – more than she could ever count – but that was _his_ call. Being a savior was something he did voluntarily, and no one had the right to force him into that role.

"Of course you still don't understand – I didn't expect you would." Doctor Honbu leaned back in his chair with the sound of creaking plastic, his lips a thin line as he breathed out through his nose. "Do you have any idea just what this man's body is capable of?" He gestured absently at the unconscious human, who currently couldn't even breathe without assistance. "His rate of healing is beyond anything we see in nature, and his pain tolerance is astounding. Do you know how he responded to a bullet wound?"

Her sharp glance cut through the air between them with such vitriol that Dr. Honbu froze, before his pearly teeth peaked out from behind amused lips; there would be no apology for ballistics testing on living targets from him. "There's no need for that – his skin is so thick, the bullets only lodged an inch under the surface on his arms. He dug them out with his own claws, licked the wounds, and the skin had stitched itself back up by the next morning."

Kagome shuddered; she could plainly see the red-eyed demon in her mind's eye, confusion and anger written across his face as he pulled the foreign objects from his body, tending to his injuries the only way he knew how. Her tired eyes fell on the human features of that demon, and her fingers rose to ghost over his arm which was mottled white and purple.

"We've tried to harness the antiseptic properties of his saliva" the doctor continued in a bored, conversational tone, "but it must lose potency over time, because we've yet to replicate those same results on human tissue."

'It probably has to do with his demonic powers' Kagome thought in wonder. His miraculous traits had become so commonplace to her when they'd traveled together that she'd taken them for granted. Now though… she couldn't contain her gratitude that he had the ability to heal his own wounds… and that these scientists hadn't been able to steal that from him yet.

"His healing abilities are worth studying in and of themselves: just imagine how far we'd be able to take modern medicine with only a fraction of that knowledge!" His smile was expectant, but Kagome was in no mood to share his enthusiasm.

"You can't just take that from someone though" she muttered, trying to keep from snapping at the doctor, "That's too much to ask of one person. And he… he's already been through enough."

Her fingers ventured up his arm, grazing his shoulder to settle in the short black strands of hair wisping over his head. She stroked through the choppy mess as gently as possible, afraid to apply pressure to any point on his skull and cause even more pain. At the sudden fall of silence, she glanced up to see Dr. Honbu watching her with renewed interest, and he leaned forward in his chair as their eyes met.

"If I recall correctly, you agreed to answer some questions in return for this… rather pointless request to stay beside him tonight." Sliding forward on the smooth floor, he reached for his clipboard on the edge of the nearest desk, quickly returning to a more reclined position as he pulled a pen from his lab coat pocket and clicked it open. "I believe I've done more than my share of answering, and I'd like the favor returned."

Fidgeting under his intense gaze, Kagome glanced anxiously at the pen poised over the sheet, fingers obviously itching to write. She hadn't expected to be interrogated so soon – she had been hoping to escape before her bluff could be called. But her options were limited, and she decided to tell him what she could, and lie about the rest. They'd just have to escape before the doctor could figure out which was truth and which was not. "Fine. What's your question?"

"Well my _first_ question" Dr. Honbu began, tapping the back of his pen against the board, "is about Subject K here. How exactly did you meet him?"

She paused only a moment before the lie rolled off her tongue. "He came to our shrine looking for shelter. He never told me where he came from, just that he had nowhere else to go. You can guess why."

"And you became close?"

Fidgeting under his knowing eyes, Kagome could only nod.

"Very well. So, how long has he exhibited these strange features and abilities?"

Kagome faltered, trying to decipher the _real_ purpose of the question, but… there was really no answer except "He was born like this."

Doctor Honbu stewed over the answer in silence for a few moments, rocking back and forth in his chair and lazily swinging his pen, before finally saying with a hidden undercurrent of confusion "How was this made possible?"

"What's so hard to understand?" Kagome answered in a biting tone, her fingers still tangled in Inuyasha's hair. She forced her attention back on his slumbering face to keep from rolling her eyes at the doctor. "His father was a demon, his mother was human. He's a half-demon. Which I've already told you. And you didn't believe me."

"While I find the concept of a 'demon' hard to swallow" the doctor responded, leaning forward in his chair to catch her wary eye, "I do believe you that these abnormalities are part of his genetic make-up. My colleagues are convinced that the only possible explanations are those of surgical manipulation and steroid abuse, but the data doesn't lie."

Excitement festered behind his brown eyes, and Kagome looked away shivering.

"So then these traits and abilities can be passed on genetically, even mixed with human DNA – is that what you're saying?"

Kagome's fingers stilled in the black strands of hair, the beginnings of an uncomfortable thought forming in her mind. She didn't dare look back at Dr. Honbu, but answered softly "That's how it was for him."

"Then it would be safe to assume" he continued, his tone not assuming in the least, "that any offspring of his would also carry those genetic traits."

Kagome's lips pursed; she'd been afraid of this. More afraid than she dared to admit, because even after all of this pain, all of the trauma… there was still a sunny patch of forest in her imagination where a small hut stood home to herself and Inuyasha and a brood of little dog-eared children. She wouldn't let this deranged doctor ruin her last dream. "We're not rabbits" she said icily, "You can't just stick us in a cage and wait for test-babies to pop out."

"It doesn't have to be you."

The wave of anger that rushed through her at those words was so strong she feared it would result in another shockwave. She pulled her hand away quickly from Inuyasha's head before her clenching fist could tear out any of his hair. The image of some nameless, faceless woman in her half-demon's cage, holding him tenderly like she had, gasping as he licked at her neck with his affectionate puppy-kisses… she hadn't felt such a jealous rage in years. She knew it was a stupid idea; there's no way it could happen! She was the only one he trusted… the only one he'd ever…. "I thought he wouln't let anyone else near him?" Her haughty tone was a valiant attempt to cover up the sudden wave of panic, but Dr. Honbu didn't buy it.

"Ever heard of artificial insemination? He doesn't need to be near anyone at all. We just need to find the right stimulus." Dr. Honbu turned to his clipboard with bright eyes, jotting down notes as though he'd suddenly come across something brilliant. "Pheromones haven't affected him in the past, but we'll try some new methods."

Kagome's skin crawled at the implications, and she suddenly felt the need to throw her arms over her half-demon friend, to shield him from these perverted doctors. "I told you, he's not an animal!" She cried out, the tremor in her voice drawing the doctor's attention away from his papers. Her eyes stung, but she held back her tears as she met the older man's upturned brow. "You can't treat him like a prize stallion! He deserves to have a family – to be a father – not just be part of a breeding program."

Tapping his pen in open irritation, Dr. Honbu's mouth twitched in a frown as he listened to the girl's tirade. He took a deep breath through his nose as she finished, expelling it in a clipped "Well, if you feel so strongly about it, I suggest you volunteer for the position of 'mother' early, because with or without you, we're moving forward with the tests."

Her hands gripped the edge of the table, futilely grasping for something to anchor her failing heart to. How had things ended up like this?

"At any rate" the doctor spoke up, his tone turning airy and light "there are other uses for his DNA. Donor organs, for example. If we could at least infuse organ tissue with his genetic code, we could make disease a thing of the past!"

"Let me guess," Kagome said bitingly, "you've already tried."

"Of course we have" Dr. Honbu responded, flipping through the papers clipped to his board and peering at them carefully. He seemed to be searching for something, and Kagome felt the nagging desire to keep him from finding it.

"So, what? Do you have other people locked up here too? Are you running some kind of fake hospital or something? Buying organs off the black market?"

He glanced up from the files, a twinge of irritation evident in the arch of his brow. "We're not a hospital, young lady. We're a research lab."

She took careful note of the claims he didn't bother refuting. "How else do you get your test subjects?" Kagome insisted, leaning over the edge of the metal table, her arms brushing up against Inuyasha's cold skin, "We can't be the only people you're experimenting on."

The doctor didn't respond right away. Folding his hands in his lap, he leaned back in his creaking chair, his head tilting as he regarded Kagome. "Why are you so curious about all this?"

"What else have I got to think about?" Her eyes fell from his, fingers plucking at the sheet covering Inuyasha, a corner spilling over the edge. It wasn't that she cared about the inner-workings of the strange facility, but… partially she wanted to understand. She wanted to know why it was they were taken, and how on earth her world could have let them rot in this place so long. "I just feel… after all this time here, I'm owed a little explanation. Don't you think?"

Dr. Honbu chuckled, tapping his pen on the board and saying "I suppose you're entitled to a little bit of information, yes…. Just don't worry too much over what you hear. Even if you _were_ able to tell someone someday, nothing would come of it. We're untouchable."

Kagome raised an eyebrow at his cocky words; it was true, she _had_ been hoping for something to use against him. "What, are you a government agency or something?"

"Of course not – too many guidelines that way." Setting his clipboard on the table beside the still and silent patient, he faced Kagome with a new alertness. He slouched towards her, as though to share a secret, and Kagome's mind snapped to attention. She'd seen this kind of thing before, in egotistical demons so eager to share their brilliance that they forgot to watch their mouths.

"I've worked in government labs" he said snidely, his eyes drifting to follow some specter of thought. "They're so concerned with restrictions and safety-measures that nothing's ever accomplished. So many times we were on the brim of scientific breakthrough, only to have it snatched away by some bureaucrat quoting lawbooks."

Kagome kept silent, staring at Inuyasha's bruised skin and wondering if any laws would have saved him.

"So I got out of that racket, and started my own facility. It was difficult for a while; research requires funding and I'd sunk everything I had into getting a lab started. But my persistence paid off, and eventually, I found a backer interested in my work." His face broke into a cold smile, and before Kagome could inquire further, he'd risen from his chair and crossed to the wall behind him where a control panel sat mounted. Punching in a code that Kagome couldn't see, he turned back to her with a satisfied smirk, and suddenly the sound of sliding hydraulics erupted from a far corner of the room.

A cylindrical shape rose up from the floor, vaporous clouds spilling from the openings in the ground: it was another test chamber. Kagome half expected to see a snarling demon pressed against the glass, but there was no activity within. The shadows of the room hid whatever was inside from her view. It was a smaller container than the one Inuyasha had been kept in, with just room enough for one person, and there was no door that she could see. Squinting, Kagome found herself moving closer, drawn magnetically to the mystery the chamber posed; but then a lightbulb lit up its interior, and she fell back in her chair gasping as the shadows cleared to reveal an aged human face.

"Meet my backer, Mr. Tanagawa. This facility, our equipment, everything is funded by his generous estate."

Kagome could hardly tear her eyes away from the strange spectacle as Dr. Honbu once again took his seat across the metal table from her. "You see, Mr. Tanagawa was one of the richest business tycoons in Japan, but about ten years ago he was diagnosed with malignant lung cancer, and he panicked. It was too late to stop his smoking, and regular cancer research wasn't cutting it for him. I came in contact with him through some of my sources, and he agreed to invest everything he had into our research."

"Ten years…" Kagome mused softly, staring in horror at the capsule, "But then… you must have been successful! So why do you still need us? If he's still alive, then –"

"When did I say he was still alive?" Kagome's mouth snapped shut, and Dr. Honbu's smile grew. "He's been cryogenically frozen, but for all intents and purposes, he's dead. His body has been preserved in the event that we someday come across a cure for him."

"But if he's dead… what good would that do?"

The doctor didn't even try to hide the malicious glint in his eye as he answered slyly "What he doesn't know won't hurt him. At any rate, we've got a contract for another ten years at least, and our labs manage to produce enough… _goods_ of other interest to keep us well-cushioned. But now… now we're starting to make some real headway, and it's all thanks to you two."

Tension settled on Kagome's shoulders like a mountain of earth; she wondered if she'd really been ready to hear the truth behind all this. Perhaps blissful ignorance would have been better. "What do we have to do with it?" Her dark hazel gaze locked with the colorless brown across the metal slab, her pulse straining in her weakened body.

"I thought we'd been over this!" Dr. Honbu gestured to Inuyasha with a dismissive wave and said "His genetic makeup is a goldmine of cures and remedies."

"But _cancer_?"

Shrugging, Dr. Honbu added blithely "It's not as though he's affected by it. We've exposed him to every kind of radiation imaginable, at levels that would have killed a normal human, and no matter what the immediate results, his body mends itself back up without the slightest effect on cell formation."

Kagome's blood ran cold as she stuttered out "R-results? What kind of results?"

"Skin blistering, burns, hair loss, the usual reactions to radiation exposure." At Kagome's violent gasp, he amended "as you can see, he's recovered from all those. We've been careful to schedule that testing away from his transformation nights, just to be sure."

It was as if a tempest were brewing around her body; her skin felt charged and heavy, as though at any moment she might unleash the fiercest of thunderstorms. Dr. Honbu made no reaction, and Kagome guessed she wasn't showing any outward signs yet of her spiritual powers acting up. She couldn't help being impressed by her own self-control – this was new. 'Not yet' she reminded herself forcefully, beating back her anger and the haunting images of Inuyasha's battered body, skin burning, roaring in agony. 'Soon his demon blood will take over again, and I won't hold back anymore. But not yet.'

"We've come a long way with understanding him, but for the most part he remains a mystery. However, we know what we want, it's just a matter of finding the right way to get it."

Her eyes lifted to the doctor's thoughtful face, her own expression schooled deceptively. His pondering was interrupted as he met her eyes, and his smile set her on edge. "You on the other hand… we know just how to get what we need from _you_ … but we have no idea what it is we're _getting_."

"W-what? Me?" There was a strange disconnect with his words, and then a distant memory: she could vaguely recall being strapped to a table herself, while doctors hooked wires to her helpless body. With all the focus there'd been on Inuyasha, she'd almost forgotten that _she_ was an anomaly in this place too.

"It's more than brain activity with you, it's your entire body. The amounts of energy you're capable of producing are astronomical. I can't even begin to tell you the ways we could harness it."

"It doesn't work that way" she muttered, sinking back in her chair, wishing with everything she had that the sun would rise. She felt so vulnerable, so alone, and longed for her protector to take all of that away. Her eyes fell to his face, seeing his brows pinched and chest rising a little higher now. Her heart fell at the sight. He was in no position to save her now.

"Whatever gave you that idea?" Kagome's puzzled look met the smug smile of the doctor, and he continued "I told you, we've already figured out how to harness your abilities. You forget, but you were in a coma for three years. Do you really think we learned nothing during all that time?" He shook his head, a soft laugh in the back of his throat as he added "If you'd really been so useless to us, we would have pulled the plug ages ago."

A groan broke the tense silence between them, and all the growing fear washed from Kagome in a sea of relief as Inuyasha stirred. She grasped his arm without thinking, her face close to his as she leaned over to whisper in his human ear "Inuyasha, it's alright… I'm here with you." As his breathing became more labored around the tube in his mouth, Dr. Honbu carefully reached in to extract it, and Kagome looked on helplessly as he choked on the air before settling into a more stable breathing pattern. His brows pinched and a grimace turned his lips, but he made no more sound.

"It's getting closer to sunrise – I'd say we have maybe twenty minutes before the change happens."

Kagome watched in sudden apprehension as the doctor pulled a pager from his coat-pocket and began to punch away at it – he was calling the other doctors. Her window to act was now.

Focusing her attention on Inuyasha's beaten body, she centered her anger, whispering in her mind 'let go, let go, let go!' Doctor Honbu lurched and dropped the suddenly sparking pager with a ragged cry of pain, his slate-brown eyes locking accusingly with Kagome's. She held him there without apology.

"What are you doing, Higurashi?"

"I won't let you hurt him anymore." She could feel her spiritual aura pulsing to life in her veins, readying itself to break free and wreak the havoc she'd been aching to cause for days. Shivers ran up and down her body as pink light began to fill her vision, and she watched in satisfaction as the doctor began to back cautiously away. A few of the nearby monitors began to whir and screech as their processors sizzled and overheated, the screens streaming rows of data and alternating between bright blue and frazzled green. One machine sparked violently, alighting a nearby stack of papers in flames that plumed and spilled ashen flakes across the floor.

Doctor Honbu watched the research burn away to nothing with hard eyes. Redirecting his gaze to the girl still seated by the unconscious human, he spoke up icily "You're making a mistake, Higurashi. All we're doing is trying to keep the both of you alive – keep this up and you'll end up killing him."

"No," Kagome whispered, her eyes trained on Inuyasha's closed eyes, "the only mistake I made was thinking my world was safe…." With another wave of power, the locking mechanisms holding the half-demon down to the table released, and Kagome rose to begin removing the IVs as carefully as she could, trusting that the soon to be rising sun would fix whatever damage she might cause to his fragile body.

She didn't get far before Doctor Honbu was advancing, yelling to the point of panic "I won't let you ruin my research!" Her gaze whipped to him in the fiercest of glares, and suddenly the doctor was thrown against the wall as a bubble of pink spread out around her. He slumped, shaking his head dazedly before finding her again, and the look in his eyes was nothing short of haunted.

"You… what _are_ you?!"

"I'm through answering your questions" she snapped, sliding the last needle from Inuyasha's arm and dabbing tenderly at the beading blood with the sheet. Her worried gaze swept over her friend as she tried to decide whether to move him, willfully ignoring the man who had begun to pace outside her barrier. She hadn't known she could make a barrier like this – it seemed to be just another surprising side-effect of her coma, and she welcomed it. "We're not going to be your guinea pigs anymore" Kagome spoke up tersely, and Doctor Honbu stopped in his pacing to look back at her through the wall of pink.

"And what of our research? What of the countless lives that could be saved through further experimentation?" He faced her fully, staring down at her through the barrier he couldn't cross, his eyes wide in a desperate last attempt to reason. "Think of all the people dying, who could benefit from what your friend has. Is he really more important than they are?"

"Yes."

Every piece of equipment in the room burst with a dazzling shower of sparks as Kagome's spiritual power flared over the room. The glass container holding the frozen man shattered, steam pouring from it as the internal light extinguished. Doctor Honbu raced for it with a frustrated cry, and with his departure, Kagome began to pull the half-demon from the table. His hair was already starting to lighten, his ears taking on an elfen point.

She could still hear the doctor's frantic cursing and muttering as he tried to save the data melting away in the machines, his backer's tank already broken beyond repair as the body inside began to thaw. Her barrier remained firmly in place as she slipped her hands under the heavy man's arms and pulled him off the metal slab. Wrapping her thin arms around his torso, she grunted under the strain of lifting him, and with a final heave pulled him from the table to fall with her to the ground. Kagome winced at the bruising weight against her back and tailbone, but shrugged the pain to the side as she dragged the sheet along to shield him from the cold room. His labored breathing was loud in the sudden quiet of the dead machines, and Kagome realized with a start that the angry tirade of the doctor had also ceased. A quick scan of the room assured that he was no longer there with them, the heavy door to the test chamber still somewhat ajar, and Kagome fought back her unease. She didn't have time to worry about the bastard – Inuyasha would be transforming soon.

She felt his clammy body begin to shiver against her, and she moved to cradle him in her lap, leaning his head against her chest and holding him as close as she could. Not for the first time she wished there were windows in this place – some way for her to keep track of the moon and the sun. Waiting for the moonless night to end had never felt so long.

It felt like hours before a pulsing against her aura shook her from her thoughts, and with excitement she glanced down to see the black run from Inuyasha's hair as though it were washed away in the rain, his ears changing form to the familiar furry triangles she loved so much. Her breath caught in her throat to realize that no purple stripes had yet adorned his face. He stirred against her, groaning, and she wondered if he were still asleep, until the softest breath ghosted her skin in a quiet whisper of "Kagome…"

"Inuyasha! Inuyasha, I'm here… I've got you. You're safe now."

His brows scrunched as his body tensed in pain, and his closed-eyes expression only grew more strained as he said hoarsely "No… leave."

Her blood ceased pumping, her whole body going stiff at his words. She'd been waiting so long to talk to him like this, to have her half-demon speak with her and say her name… but she'd never thought he'd tell her to leave. "Wha-what are you trying to say?"

"My- my body… My demon blood… It's gonna take over again…"

The pain in her heart ebbed to realize he was only trying to keep her safe, and her arms tightened in a gentle hug. "Let it, Inuyasha" she whispered by his ear, her hand coming up to stroke comfortingly through his choppy hair. "I'm perfectly safe around you in demon form. You don't have to worry about that. Protect yourself a little longer, until I can get us out of here."

He shook his head against her though, using what little strength he had to push away, and she looked down at him to meet bleary golden, bloodshot eyes. "No… I mean… you need to leave. Alone. They know how to take me down… even as a demon. But you… you can make it out." His hand rose, wracked with tremors as it pushed futily against her shoulder and her growled weakly "Go – get outta here and save yourself. I won't let you die with me."

Her fingers gently took hold of his trembling hand, and he was helpless to do more than curl his fingers around hers as she turned to press a soft kiss to his palm. "If you think, for one second" she said, pressing his captured hand to her cheek as a smile began to form on her lips, "that I'm going to leave you here and save myself… then you're just as big an idiot as you used to be." Her smile spread even further as she saw his stubborn frown, so familiar and warm, but then he winced again and gasped, slumping slightly in her embrace, and her smile disappeared. "Inuyasha, stop fighting it. Please – let your demon blood heal you. I'll be fine." She met his golden eyes one more time, biting her lip at how lost and helpless her powerful protector looked at that moment, and she tore her gaze away to kiss his feverish forehead, unable to watch any longer. Her lips lingered against his skin as she felt a pulse of power brush her aura, and by the time she pulled away, the eyes that met hers were bright red and blue.

Melancholy swept through her; it was as though part of her beloved had gone to sleep, and she couldn't be sure when she'd get to see him next. She still didn't know just how aware he was in this state, or how much he could remember. Inuyasha rose from her embrace to sit up before her, the tears in his skin already mending and the fog of pain lifting from his eyes. She smiled at him, and though his expression didn't change, he leaned in to sniff her neck and leave a quick lick. "Let's go, Inuyasha."

Her legs burned painfully as she stood holding the sheet, and with a few soft directions, she got the demon-man to hold still as she folded and wrapped the thin sheet around his waist, tying it off at his hip. "We'll get our old clothes when we leave, but for now that'll have to do."

Inuyasha made no response but followed dutifully after her as she padded across the cold floor to the gaping doorway. Cautiously she approached the opening, listening in tense silence for the approaching feet of lab workers or guards. A heat at her back told her Inuyasha was close by, no doubt looking for the same clues as she; but aside from the sound of his sniffing nose, he gave no indication of sensing danger. Reaching fingers pushed at the heavy door, and it swung out into the hallway on silent hinges. Ambient light from some distant hallway seeped into their corridor, just bright enough to show Kagome the way to the exit. They had a stop to make first though.

Dredging up memories from a few days prior, when she'd still been alone and searching, Kagome retraced her steps to the unassuming doorway leading to their stolen belongings. Flipping on the light and ushering Inuyasha inside, she gave one last wary look down the hall before shutting them in. Although far from safe, Kagome let herself breathe a sigh of relief at their luck so far, her heart still racing in quiet adrenaline. Movement caught her eye, and she watched with a small smile as Inuyasha scouted the room, his black-tipped nose leading him over and around the stacks of boxes until he found the one she knew he would. His clawed hands rose unsteadily, his red and blue eyes unsure, and with a small growl he sunk his claws into the cardboard of the box with tearing force, the contents spilling to the ground as he shook away the shredded box. Their thick sweaters cushioned the wood and metal necklaces as the fell in a heap, and a laugh slipped from Kagome's lips as she stepped toward Inuyasha and the mess he'd made.

He knelt to inspect the objects with his nose, not daring to touch them just yet. Settling down beside him, Kagome rooted through the pile until she'd fished out his red sweater and the black sweatpants they'd bought for him back then. The first time she'd tried to get him to wear jeans in her time had been disastrous, the half-demon refusing to wear clothing so tight and restricting. She could still remember his angry muttering "How am I supposed to jump in these?!" to which she'd replied that he didn't _need_ to be jumping _anywhere_ anymore. She would have forbidden all that jumping long ago if she'd known the attention it would attract. But here they were, and she just hoped she could get Inuyasha, the wild demon that he was now, to agree to wear the sweats.

Setting aside her own pile of clothes, a jean skirt and white shirt to wear under her knit sweater, Kagome turned nervous eyes to the man next to her. "Inuyasha" she whispered, watching his ear flick toward the sound as his face rose to meet her gaze, "We need to get dressed. Do you understand?" No change, no movement. Sighing heavily, Kagome tucked a falling strand of hair behind her ear and began hesitantly "Alright, just… watch me, and see if you can get the idea." She stood quickly and pulled her dingy slip over her head, dropping it carelessly to the floor as she bent for the clothes to replace it. She chanced a look at Inuyasha again, to see if he were still paying attention… and froze as she saw him doing just that.

Kagome's face flushed as his red and blue eyes flickered from her face to the flimsy hospital bra and panties that she still wore, and when those eyes finally met hers again, she could swear there was something like amusement dancing in their inhuman depths. Wringing her white shirt between fidgeting fingers, Kagome found her lip quirking into a shy grin as she mumbled "glad to see you're listening." Slipping her bony arms into the cotton shirt, Kagome paused for a moment to adjust to the almost nostalgic feeling her old clothes brought to mind. She shook it off quickly enough, and reached for her skirt, acutely aware of her enraptured audience.

Her bout of nerves had disappeared quickly – maybe it was the closeness they'd already shared the past few days, maybe it was the lack of prying eyes, or maybe the growing elation at the thought that soon they'd be free. Whatever the case, Kagome couldn't help the playful mood that overtook her as she modeled how to get dressed, showily slipping her legs into the skirt and ignoring how it hung a little lower than normal on her unusually thin waist. She hesitated slightly before donning the sweater – it was big and bright and might attract attention, but… her fingers traced the carefully stitched cat, and her heart won out. She just couldn't leave her mother's handiwork behind. The moment she put it on, the knitted cloth encompassed her like a hug, and she knew she'd made the right choice.

Meeting the warm red gaze of her demon, Kagome dropped to her knees before him and shuffled closer on the linoleum floor. "Your turn" she said lightly, "I don't think the sheet's gonna be enough." When he made no move beyond watching her lips as she spoke, Kagome rolled her eyes and reached for the dark sweatpants, holding them up before him and shaking them for emphasis. "This is for you. Wear it." She knew he wasn't mindless in this form – she knew that beyond the survival instinct, he was capable of thought and reason, on some level at least. Perhaps if she tried shorter, more precise commands, it would be easier for him to understand.

It seemed as though her theory was correct, and she smiled as his clawed hands slowly took the clothing from her pliant grip. Standing as she had done, Inuyasha looked uncertain for a moment, one hand tugging at the knot Kagome had made in the sheet with obvious confusion. The girl opposite him giggled at the frustration she could see in his fanged expression, her mirth building as a low growl bubbled up in his throat. She was left choking on that laughter when with a snarl his claws tore through the sheet like paper, and he was bared to her under the yellow light of the storage room.

It wasn't like she hadn't already seen him like this, she told herself fervently. It wasn't as though she didn't already know what it felt like to be held by a very naked and powerful and perfectly built half-demon. But that was locked in a test-tube, under constant scrutiny, where her main concern had been how vulnerable he was in his nude state. It was different being alone, with no bars caging them in, no beeping monitors, no immediate threats… it was different with him watching her like that.

Keeping her eyes focused on his, Kagome tried to keep her voice from squeaking as she teased "I thought you were listening when I told you how to get dressed." His red and blue eyes blinked slowly at her, and Kagome sighed in resignation. Grunting she rose to her feet and crossed to him, trying her best to recall that easy intimacy they'd shared those past few days as she took the pants carefully from his long claws and demonstrated how they fit over each leg. Handing them back to him with an expectant look, she watched impatiently as he followed her example, going so far as to help pull them on as his claws and feet got caught in the fabric. Kagome's attitude dropped and she found herself dressing him in his shirt and red sweater as well when his elongated claws threatened to tear his new wardrobe.

Stepping back to admire her work, a lump caught in Kagome's throat at the picture before her. Dressed as he was now, she could so easily remember that day three years ago when they'd gone on their date in the city. The clothes were so normal, so unassuming, and yet… his white hair fell in a crude cut so different from the flowing locks he'd sported all his life. Purple streaks cut across his face like battle scars, and his eyes burned in a way that used to make her cringe. Her mind flitted back to the weak gold eyes that had pieced through her as she held his shaking body in her arms. He may look different than he did those years ago, he may not understand her as well with demon blood running the higher functions of his brain, but this was still her Inuyasha, and he always would be.

She knelt and picked up the last remaining items: the beads of subjugation and golden locket. A sad smile lifted the corners of her mouth as she approached him, holding the beads up in one hand asking "Do you want these back? I won't force you to wear them."

His red and blue eyes dropped to the necklace in alert recognition, his hand twitching forward. Kagome was sure he would throw them away – there was no way he'd want them back – but those long claws took them from her, grasped them in both hands, and dropped them over his head. Closing his eyes, he breathed deeply, and Kagome felt something stirring to life deep within her. She was sure he felt it too: the necklace was alive again. Doubts ate at her, nervousness prompting her to gasp "Don't you want me to take it off?" His demonic eyes opened to stare at her with something she couldn't read, but he didn't try to remove the necklace or motion for her to remove it. Instead he reached for her other hand, the one holding the locket, careful of his long claws as he plucked it from her fingers and dropped it over her own head. She looked down at it for a moment in wonder, then back at her demon, and could have sworn she saw a smirk behind those long fangs.

"Thank you" she whispered, her fingers ghosting the cold metal before slipping it under the thick weave of her sweater. He watched with what looked to be approval, both of them knowing it would be safer tucked away. Pressing the heart-shaped jewelry over its beating twin, Kagome decided there was too much distance between them and pressed herself against the warm wall of her demon protector. His arms immediately caged her in, his face dropping to the crook of her neck as his canine nose sniffed and nuzzled her skin affectionately. Gripping the front of his sweater, she burrowed into the safety of his embrace, her voice drifting up softly to him "Inuyasha… even if you can't understand me exactly… just remember that I love you, alright? Human, demon, half-demon, it doesn't matter." Her arms slipped around to squeeze him to her, and she shivered as his extra-long fangs grazed her neck. "It's all my fault that this happened… I should have been more careful, and I'm so, so sorry, but…." Tilting her head to look at him, she brought a hand to his striped cheek and held him steady as she said fervently "It doesn't matter what they've done to you, you're still beautiful to me – you're still my Inuyasha."

It was difficult to kiss the fanged mouth of his demon form, but Kagome was determined to try, and Inuyasha was more than willing to assist. He growled softly as she pressed her soft lips against him, trying to copy the gentle movements of her smaller mouth. She pulled away with a heavy breath, her eyes blinking open as contentment settled into every crevice. Her fingers drew lazy patterns up and down her demon's back, but as she looked up into drooping red and blue, she was jolted with an uncomfortable reminder of their situation.

"C'mon" she sighed, dropping her arms to grasp a clawed hand, "time to go."

She was almost sorry to leave their hideaway – it had been their first real moment of peace together, but for all its illusion of safety, they were still in enemy territory. Kagome scolded herself for letting her guard drop so low. Still, as she turned off the light and stepped out into the hall, it seemed that their luck hadn't changed: the halls were silent and dark. Beside her, she could hear Inuyasha sniffing the air and see his head darting this way and that in her peripheral, but he didn't seem to sense anything more than she did. And although she was grateful for their lucky break, Kagome couldn't help feeling that the odds seemed to be a little too stacked in their favor.

Knowing Inuyasha was on the lookout for humans, Kagome kept her gaze focused upward, trying to spot any cameras before the cameras could spot them. But aside from the ambient blue light of the main hallway, she could see nothing else. It wasn't until they neared the door to the stairwell that she could finally make out the tiny security cam in the corner, and Kagome released Inuyasha's hand, telling him with stern eyes to stay where he was as she edged along the wall beside it. She was still nervous about using her spiritual powers around her friend in demon-form, and decided the more space between them the better. Doing her best to direct her thoughts at the camera and the camera alone, she was met with the satisfying sound of sparking electronics, and turned back to her waiting demon with a triumphant smirk. At his move to join her she lifted a hand, and he waited obediently as she tried the door to see if it needed frying as well.

The handle moved away before she could even touch it. Her arm was seized in a painful grip and she was pulled through the door before she could even comprehend what had happened. Men bearing tranquilizer guns rushed past her before the doors slammed shut, accompanied by the heavy clicks of locks. But even the sharp pinch of a needle in her arm couldn't overwhelm the small relief she'd had upon looking through the small glass windows of those double-doors. The guards still stood in formation before them, guns raised and ready to fire, but her half-demon had disappeared.

* * *

*Author's Note:

So…. Uncharacteristically long chapter. Hopefully this makes up somewhat for how freakin late I am in updating this story.

Also, no we haven't seen the last of Dr. Honbu, and there are still many question left unanswered regarding Kagome's powers and just how the scientists have been putting them to use. But don't worry too much: dog-boy's not gonna let them take his Kagome away for long.


	9. Chapter 9

Abnormalities, Chapter Nine

* * *

"Dammit all, stay on guard! That freak could be anywhere…."

The heavy clap of boots on the cold tile of the basement echoed through the empty hallways like booming thunder. Hissing breaths filled the silence like storm winds no matter how hard the men tried to hide the sound through tightly clenched teeth. From the center of the group a stalky, broad-shouldered guard stepped forward, lifting the tranquilizer into position and glaring at the shaking men behind him.

"I've had enough of this – Takeda, Ueda, down the main hallway with me. Kazuo takes the left passageways, Ono takes the right. The freak's likely holed up in one of the rooms, so we'll go to the end of each hall and wait to smoke him out. Ueno, I want you to find the main switches, and when I give the word, turn 'em all on. I want this place well-lit before we start shooting." His finger traced over the trigger, a bead of sweat travelling slowly down the back of his neck as his hair stood on end. "Once the lights are on, we go through the rooms one by one – at the first sign of movement, don't hesitate to shoot. Don't double back, and don't cross paths; I don't want any friendly fire, understand? But above all, don't let that _thing_ get away."

With affirming grunts, the men moved to their assigned positions down the dim blue corridors. "Hey Uchida" one of the men whispered over the silence, following the burly leader through the middle hall, "You think after this they'll start outfitting us with Kevlar and actual guns?"

"Ueda, the maniac's not armed" Uchida responded, though he tightened his grip on the weapon in his sweating hands. "He's hopped up on some super-powered steroids, but it's not like he's got long-range weapons we'd need armor against. Just don't let him get close enough for a fist fight, and if he does, jab a needle in his arm."

The tension didn't leave Ueda's frame though, and after a brief silence he spoke again. "They say though… they say he's got claws."

"So the psychopath bites his nails, so what? You're letting all those rumors and stories mess with your mind. Honestly, what do you think this is, a police force? We're in a science lab for god's sake. Insane patients are as bad as we're going to get."

"… then why do we have enough doses to kill a lion?"

"Just shut up and do your job, Ueda." They'd reached the end of the hallway, their only sign of such in the darkness being the branching corridors on either side. The end wall and last two doors were completely shrouded in black. "You take the left. Takeda, right hall's yours. If the bastard somehow makes it past you boys and tries to break for the main entrance, I'll take care of him."

They wandered off into the darkness, and squaring his shoulders, Uchida took a bold step into the black ahead of him. Taking slow, measured paces, his gun led the way until it prodded the far wall and he turned his back against it with relief. Staring across the corridor, he could just make out the metal double-doors leading to the stairwell, the blue overhead lights up front barely lighting the first two hallways. His eyes began to adjust though, seeing some of the corners and angles of the walls, and he could almost make out the metal frames of the doors in his sector… and that was when a feeling prickled over his skin. An inexplicable unease had goosebumps erupting over the flesh his hospital scrubs didn't cover. Uchida clenched his jaw, his finger readying over the trigger as his lip pulled into a defiant sneer. He wouldn't let some psychotic test-subject get the better of him. He didn't care anymore about careful dosage – he'd plug the animal with as many darts as it took for him to feel satisfied. If they didn't want it dead, then they should have kept it under better lock and key.

A distant three taps from the front of the hall caught his attention – the signal for the lights – and he closed his eyes against the sudden flood of white as the basement level was instantly illuminated. It took mere seconds for his eyes to adjust to the change, and he was already moving to the door on his right. Uchida stopped dead, his heartbeat catching somewhere in his throat and threatening to choke him as he caught the mass of red and white perched in the corner of the room like some humanoid spider.

" _Shit_!" He was firing before he could think about it longer, but the red-clad figure moved faster than he could aim, bare hands tearing through the drywall like daggers and etching a path like scars; the darts stuck in the walls so deep they disappeared from view, and yet none of them made contact with their intended target. Uchida whirled, trying to cut the freak off, but his stomach dropped when his mark suddenly vanished. Panic settled deep in the guard's mind as he spun back and forth, searching for even the slightest bit of movement at which to aim. "What kinda monster _are_ you?!" No sooner had the words hissed through his teeth than the gun was kicked from his grasp, the force breaking his fingers and ripping a yell from his throat. The weapon slid across the hard floor, spinning to a silent stop under the luminescent lights down the hall. Bruising force crushed his windpipe, and he could do no more than gurgle and stare after his last defense, so far out of reach, as Subject K-9 walked purposefully into view between them.

Uchida stared into eyes too red to be bloodshot, at ears twitching too irregularly and smoothly to be anything but real, saw the calculating thought behind the fanged expression of the man he'd been sent to hunt… and he fought. He swung, he kicked, even as his air supply diminished and his head grew fuzzy, he refused to meet his end at the hands of a monster. Through the black specs clouding his vision, he saw that psycho's lips curve into the most sinister smirk he'd ever had the misfortune of seeing, and the black spots became more substantial as the other guards raced into the main corridor at the sounds of a fight.

He heard their yells of shock, saw them raise their guns, and he let himself smirk in triumph – but the grip around his neck tightened, his body swinging without his consent, and he felt the stinging thud of needles as the tranquilizer darts made him their pin cushion. Blackness overtook his consciousness before he could even feel his body hit the floor.

The hallway rang with the shots of the dart guns, but the red and black blur that was Subject K-9 skillfully evaded every strike. Leaping over the heads of the group, he charged them, and they scattered with horrified cries, some still firing. Two more guards went down that way.

Backing slowly away from the ensuing chaos, Ueda watched with horrified eyes as the claws he'd heard rumors of finally made their appearance. Not only were the tranquilizer guns sent flying but the arms holding them as well, as the psychotic patient tore off his attackers' limbs amidst arches of blood. He left them screaming in bleeding agony, unconcerned with ending their suffering. The last guard was still stubbornly firing at the man, but Subject K-9 was unfazed by the darts as he avoided them like a slow-moving game of tag. In one smooth leap he was behind the guard, his knee delivering a spine-snapping blow, his hands nearly tearing the head from the shoulders as he snapped the man's neck.

Suddenly those inhuman eyes crossed the distance to meet Ueda's, and without hesitation the man threw his gun as far away as his shaking arms could manage. "I-I'm unarmed! Please, don't kill me!" Over the pained groans of the men still bleeding out of the floor, he heard a growl rise up from Subject K-9, and in the blink of an eye he found himself facing the floor, his jaw cracking painfully against the tile as his hands were pulled behind him and a heavy foot planted itself square on his back. He gasped against the flash of pain, but counted himself lucky that this was the extent of the damage. "I s-swear" he sputtered, "I don't have any more weapons. Just don't kill me, I'm _begging_ here!"

There was a moment's silence from his attacker in which he didn't dare move and could hardly breathe, but then the weight against his back was gone, and he was being hauled up by the back of his shirt. His hands rose to alleviate the strain against his neck as Subject K-9 dragged him bodily towards the stairwell doors, before he found himself in a heap before them. Aware of the thin ice his life rested on, Ueda turned quickly onto his back and scooted till he was against the wall, those terrifying red eyes watching him expectantly all the while.

"Door."

It took a moment for Ueda to process the growl – he hadn't known the patient was capable of speech. From all he'd heard, the guy had been a feral, steroid-popping mess. He wondered what else had been a lie. Glancing at the doors, Ueda uncertainly tried to decipher the cryptic message, until it clicked: they were locked! Fumbling fingers reached for the card looped at his belt, and he slid it through the small card reader against the wall without another thought. He heard the locks deactivate, and his breath left in a whoosh. Long fingers snatched the card away from him before he could put it back, the elastic holding it to his belt snapping like hair. Pocketing the card in his dark sweats, Subject K-9 turned to him again, and with evident threat growled out "Giiirl."

The girl… he must have been asking where that girl was – the one who'd been taken when they stormed the basement level. How a mere girl had managed to spend so much time with this killer and not come out dead like all the others, he had no idea, but… there were a lot of things that didn't make sense here. Like why she and this red-eyed psycho had matching home-knit sweaters… or why he'd want to wear something like that in the first place. "She… she's upstairs…. I think they… they probably took her to the top floor. Keep going till you get to the top. I don't know any more than that."

He heard the door push open, saw a flash of red and black and white, and then Subject K-9 was gone.

* * *

Stale. Dead. This place he existed in – it was always like this. No smells, ever-echoing sounds, the same air hitting his skin day after day, cycling, always cycling….

"Upstairs… took her… top floor… top…. Don't know…."

He rumbled his displeasure at the cowering human; he'd understood the words enough to have a heading, even if the rest of the sentence was gibberish. When the girl was around, the one with a scent – the one who faintly smelled of honeysuckle and wild berries and things that made him feel warm and wanted and home – when _she_ was around, he'd understood things better. Somehow, she cleared the continual fog in his head. With her gone, his world had gone a little grayer. He didn't have the patience to work out things like words and sentences and behavior. But… there was something behind the raging pulse of his demon blood, something in the back of his mind pulling on the reins, saying to stop and think a little, to listen and try to understand, and he'd done so. It was the reason he'd let that man live.

He wanted more blood on his claws, his body was aching for it – but he wanted that girl back _more_. Both sides of his soul were calling out for her in deafening volume.

Bare feet leapt the concrete steps ten at a time, clearing landing after landing until fiery red and icy blue could see the flood of early morning light against the ceiling. Snarling his victory, Inuyasha pushed his body to scale the rest of the stairs, landing on all fours against the rough concrete of the top floor. His gaze snapped to a blinking red light against the wall, and the thin outline of a tall shape marring the flat surface. Another tug at the reins, and recognition flooded him: a door. A lock. The key.

His lips pulled back over his long fangs as Inuyasha pried a clawed hand from the cold floor and forced it slowly into his pocket. Mindful of his sharp talons, the pads of his fingers pressed against the plastic and pulled it from its confines to meet his inspection. He glanced from the small card to the flashing red light of the box by the door, silent and waiting, as if the answer would present itself. A growl of impatience bubbled up in his throat, and he closed his demonic eyes against the increasing aggression. The black of his eyelids was like blinders on a horse, and he felt his pulse return to something manageable, but it wasn't enough; he couldn't focus. His grip tightened, and he felt the material in his grip strain.

He thought of _her_. A natural sweetness filled his nose, lighting his mind like the outside sun, and for the first time he was really aware of the light seeping through the window. How long had it been since he'd seen the sun? Suddenly noticing the warm rays, he recalled the warmth he'd felt earlier when _she_ had touched him: soft hands over clothes, on his bare skin, brushing away the hurt of countless days with feathery passes of her fingertips. He remembered what it felt like to have her lips against him, to hear her pulse race and her fleeting gasps for air as she moved her mouth over his. The feel of plastic disappeared to be replaced by her soft body, placed willingly and trustingly into his clawed clutches, never fearing, never wavering. Her eyes, though dull and gray from what they used to be, looked up at him with such fervent trust that they burned.

He looked at the lock again, the images from downstairs clear and bright in his mind. Deft fingers slipped the plastic through the reader, and the whirring of a latch rang in his ears. The door without a handle slid open, and Inuyasha slipped noiselessly inside.

* * *

Doctor Honbu watched in stony silence as the lab technicians finished attaching the last of the wires to the unconscious girl. Flipping a few switches, he nodded in satisfaction to see her life signs spring to life across the monitors. Even asleep, her mind was a whirl of activity. The man and woman in the room nodded to him through the opaque glass, beating a hasty retreat to decontamination and leaving the doctor to his work. This was his project, and he preferred to run it alone.

A quick check of the room before locking it down, and the doctor flipped another switch - this one lighting a crown of wires and lights around the prone girl's head. She jolted in her seated position, her hands spasming from under the plastic restraints, but her eyes remained closed. The room behind the glass lit up in waves of green and white digital activity.

"You could have made this so much easier on yourself" the doctor tittered, rolling from one station to another in a plush black chair. "All you had to do was sit back, relax, and answer a few of our questions." He slid a few levers, and the young girl's body jolted more violently, the wires around her sparking. "But you had to play the hero, didn't you? Too bad you never stopped to think, Higurashi. You were so caught up in trying to find a villain to defeat, that you never noticed you were creating one."

A few more flicks and a final push, and the machines inside the white test chamber roared to life. Kagome's eyes flew open, gray orbs glazed and unseeing as pink flooded her convulsing body only to be absorbed by the wires strapped to every pulse point. Doctor Honbu watched Subject H in rapt attention.

"It's a shame this'll do nothing more than wear you out a bit" he murmured offhand, the sounds of shocks and sparks from the other room muffled through the glass. His voice projected into the bright white of the test chamber, speckled pink by Kagome's aura, but whether the girl could hear him or not was unknown. "It's a been a while since we've been able to collect energy from you. You've been powering this facility for the past couple years, did you know? You've saved us millions in Yen! I hope you know we've put all that extra money to good use testing your friend." A smirk lit his face at his blank subject's lack of response. "I must say, I have no idea why we didn't try sedating you earlier - you're much more reasonable this way! If all goes well with Subject K-9 and we don't have to euthanize him, we might even give you back! I'd like to see what he'd do with you in this state." His brown eyes rose to the lidded gray tinged with pink, and his lip turned up in a thoughtful grin. "I'd even consider leaving you alone for a few days… if it'd get me those 'test babies' you were so concerned about."

Chuckling to himself, the doctor leaned back in his cushioned chair, his hands lacing behind his head as he admired his work. "Unfortunate that you ruined Mr. Tanagawa's body - I believe we were close to a breakthrough. A few more months testing, and we could have found a way, through your abilities, to reanimate the dead tissue. Would have worked wonders in tandem with your dog's DNA." Glancing for a moment at the data streaming below him, Doctor Honbu jotted down a few notes on a clipboard, when a sudden blip on the monitor caught his eye. Something was happening with the patient.

His first reaction wasn't fear - he was a scientist, not afraid of anything. But there was unshakable anxiety that crawled up his skin and stood each hair at its root as his eyes landed on the face of Kagome Higurashi and saw her mouthing a voiceless yet unmistakable "I-nu-ya-sha".

* * *

Everything was dark. Everywhere was black. Nothingness surrounded her on all sides, with startling familiarity: she'd been somewhere like this before.

Was she… inside the jewel?

"You could have made this so much easier on yourself."

A voice, deep and taunting with no body to anchor it, floated around her in the blackness. It was so much like back then. So much like her tortured time inside the jewel. But the jewel was destroyed. How… how had she ended up back inside it?

"But you had to play the hero, didn't you?"

This didn't sound like the jewel though… back then she'd been tempted with thoughts of home and wishes of something bright and hopeful. The thoughts that surrounded her now were bitter, lacking the subtle allure that the dying Shikon Jewel had woven into its promises even at the very end. She couldn't remember this voice, but something told her that its owner was a threat to her just as the Jewel of Four Souls had been. So she listened to it rant, her hearing trained desperately in the dark, until she heard something that brought awareness back in piercing clarity.

"If all goes well with Subject K-9 and we don't have to euthanize him, we might even give you back!" Subject K-9…. Images flashed before her in the dark of blood red and ice blue eyes, of white hair and twitching ears, of strong arms and a warm body that made her feel as though no evil in the world could touch her… and a name surfaced in the blackness, as it had when she'd been dragged into the swirling void of the Meido.

"Inuyasha! Inuyasha!"

She cried his name over and over until her voice grew hoarse, but something in her knew that this time would be different; this time, he wouldn't come to save her. How could he, when he wasn't in the blackness with her? There was no Meido for him to jump inside, just the darkness of her mind. Still, she called for him. At least it broke the silence.

* * *

There was no way to go but forward. The opening before him was strange - this wall was giving, not solid. Smooth, almost fleshy, but… false - some kind of plant fiber that he couldn't name and didn't care about. With a growl he pushed it aside, and it gave with ease, squeaking uncomfortably in his ear as he passed and leaving his the pads of his fingers tingling. The flaps closed behind him as though drawn together, and he almost turned to look in curiosity - but then his senses were assaulted, and he roared. Horrid jets of unnatural steam blew down on his body, invading his nose, his eyes, and he flattened his ears as best he could against the assault. He crouched defensively against the attack, but it was over just as quickly as it had begun, leaving the demon fuming. The bastards had killed his sense of smell.

There were no more scents in the room but the false scent of the steam, and it threw Inuyasha into a rage. They were trying to hide the girl from him. His long fangs hung over his lip in a snarl as he crouched seething, claws digging into the thick plastic ground and eyes darting about for a target on which to release his growing fury. There were no humans in sight, only rows of tall metal boxes, some open to show human-shaped skins of the same shiny material the fabric doors had been made of. He snorted at them dismissively, and turned his attention to the door across from him, sporting another locking mechanism.

He knew what he had to do - knew he had to put the rage and blood-lust aside for a moment and let his human heart breath long enough to think rationally. But he didn't want to just yet. He wanted his girl, and he wanted her now. He missed her scent, her face, her hands, her warm body, her everything, and if there was anything he could do to let her know he was coming, let her know he was trying to find her….

His animalistic mind caught on the thought, and his lip curled in a smirk over a long fang. Filling his lungs with the sterilized air of the chamber, he lifted his head to the fluorescent lights and let loose a howl that echoed around the empty walls, reverberating off the metal lockers and amplifying in the top floor's intercom system.

* * *

Doctor Honbu didn't dare move. He'd left the intercom on in the event the guards came with news of Subject K-9's condition. The last thing he wanted to hear was a hell-beast baying at his front door. Steely eyes turned to the girl strapped immobile in her chair, her lips no longer forming words but gaping soundlessly. Despite her glazed appearance, the doctor had to wonder if she weren't as shocked by the interruption as he. "Tell me" he whispered, his lips a thin line as he tapped sharply against the table, "were you calling him here?" She made no response; his brows pinched further.

He switched to a feed off the security cameras, and clenched his teeth at the sight of Subject K-9 standing in the locker room and calmly swiping a keycard through the door lock. How he'd managed to not only find a card but learn how to use one…. He shoved away from the display, and quickly punched through the security controls, desperately trying to find the overrides. There were only a few more doors between him and the psycho; it was a race against time.

Blinding pink flared through the room before the glass window, startling Doctor Honbu from his work and nearly knocking him from his chair. He almost expected to see Higurashi standing in a rage, but she remained in her comatose state. Gripping the armrest, Doctor Honbu waited for the pounding in his chest to slow as he looked over the wires attached to Subject H, assessing them visually for damage. The data streaming over the monitors pulsed and surged ever stronger, but the flow seemed uninterrupted.

"Nice try, Higurashi" he gasped, "but your little outbursts are doing nothing more than helping us at this point. I told you, we know just how to get what we want from you." He turned back to his desperate hacking, finding first the security protocol for the testing room and denying access to his monitoring station. No sooner had he done so then another flash of pink lit the walls. "I said knock it off!" His yell fell on deaf ears as Kagome remained expressionless… but he noticed some of the wires had detached. He cursed in frustration, punching desperately at the keyboard to override the last set of safety protocols… he could hear the snarls of Subject K-9 in the outside hall. He fell back in his chair with a gasping sigh just as he heard someone trying the door. It didn't open.

Silence reigned over the hum of the monitors, and even Higurashi seemed to have calmed down. Doctor Honbu smiled over his successful thwarting of the psychotic patient. "Now then, Higurashi, if you'd be so kind as to-"

A bone-rattling thud shook both rooms as not only the door but the entire wall groaned under the force of impact. The first resounding boom was followed by another as something was hurled against the entry to the testing room. Disbelieving eyes watched the wall shudder with each hit, the doctor powerless to do more than wait to see which would give first: the building or Subject K-9.

* * *

She'd been fighting for what felt like ages, trying to interrupt the blackness with her spiritual energy, but it soaked up her light like an inky sponge. It had been a while since she'd felt this alone - she'd gotten too comfortable, forgotten what it was like and taken her time with her love for granted. She didn't know how she'd woken up last time, and she couldn't be sure she'd ever wake up again.

And then she heard it: a canine howl that shook something inside her. Somehow, she knew the voice behind it, somehow she could tell what it meant. It wasn't to threaten, it wasn't a cry of pain - it was to reassure. He was telling her to wait. He was telling her he was on his way. Just as he'd done when he fought his way through the Shikon Jewel and called to her through the void.

Her fighting only grew more intense - if he was coming to save her, she'd make herself in a fit state to be saved. Spiritual energy filled her mental state, and suddenly she began to feel in her physical state as well. It was small things at first: the dull encasing of her hands, the heaviness of her limbs, the weight of her eyelids blocking her retinas from taking in her surroundings. She wasn't conscious yet… but she would be.

"Kagome… Kagome!"

For a moment she thought her mind was playing tricks on her - she was imagining his voice, only hearing what she wished she could - but then she could see him. She could see him coming towards her through the black, and for a moment she stopped fighting. He was a phantom, clad in red robes, white hair billowing out behind him, his father's fang at the ready to tear apart enemies, but then the image molded into something more familiar, and he was kneeling before her in his red sweater, hair unevenly cropped around golden eyes that were full of too much emotion.

"Kagome… wake up. I've come for you."

His clawed hand rose, and she felt her real body somewhere just outside of awareness jolt at his touch. His hands were real. "I… I don't know how."

"You've done it before" he whispered, his other hand coming to frame her face. She felt them move across her head, as though moving something away, and she wondered how closely related this world was to reality. If she was awake here… why wasn't she there?

"Inuyasha…."

"Stop thinking so much" he quipped, a short fang peaking out from his smirking lips. "You'll know the answer. You're the smartest person I know. Strongest too." His hands returned to her cheeks, his face suddenly rising to rest his forehead against hers. Kagome's eyes fluttered closed at the contact. "I'm right here with you. Don't worry 'bout a thing. When you wake up, I'll still be right here. I ain't goin' nowhere."

A shaking breath slipped past her lips, and was caught up in his as he softly kissed her. She shivered at the sensation of skin and fangs - that too had been real. Focusing her mind on the feel of her half-demon, on the spiritual energy still humming through her veins, Kagome urged herself to ignore the darkness, and to open her eyes.

* * *

"Damn those two, would someone send backup please?!" Jamming his radio back on his belt, Doctor Honbu glared murderously through the glass at the dog-eared man carefully removing the last of the wires from the glossy-eyed girl. Having the door to the test chamber kicked clean off its hinges hadn't surprised the doctor nearly as much as he'd thought it would. No, what had surprised him had been the almost… concerned way the feral patient had tended to the helpless woman upon seeing her. He'd knelt before her, gently touched her face, removed the headband of wires and sensors, all the while growling and grunting as though speaking in a way that the unconscious human could understand.

All the backup in the building seemed preoccupied cleaning up the mess Subject K-9 had left in the basement, and now that he needed them, all the extra nurses and attendants were unable to get their keycards working. Glancing up from a manual override, Doctor Honbu's jaw nearly fell to the floor as Subject K-9 closed the space between he and the girl and pressed what could only be called a kiss to the sleeping Higurashi. His eyes remained transfixed on the oddly tender behavior, and it was mere seconds later that a shuddering breath passed through the girl's body, and her eyes closed and fluttered open in wakefulness.

* * *

She slumped forward into his waiting arms; he caught her eagerly. His claws had already pulverized the strange restraints on her arms and legs, and he pulled her from the seat to the comforting warmth of his lap. In his peripheral he caught an off-white pile of cloth, warmer and rougher in texture than the rest of the stark room, and realized it was the covering she'd donned earlier. Grasping it in a clawed hand, still keeping her close to his chest, he pulled the material over her head and gently nudged her to slip her arms through its warming confines. He noticed how she burrowed deeply into the sweater, and he growled in satisfaction.

Her face rose against his chest, her eyes beginning to sparkle again, and he couldn't help leaning down to bury his nose against her neck. His senses still burned from the chemical steam, but he could pick up the traces of honeysuckle and berries, and his grip around her tightened. A soft sound met his ears, and he realized she was speaking. Refocusing his attention, he strained to decipher what his marvel of a human was telling him.

"- really here… I knew I wasn't dreaming. Did you really speak to me though, or was that all in my head?"

Inuyasha muddled over her words for a moment. Dreaming… _dreaming_. He couldn't quite remember that one. _Speak_ , he knew. Did he speak to her? He'd broken through that flimsy barrier, rushed to her side, tried to communicate… he spoke to her the only way he could. He knew he hadn't spoken the way she did, but… he could sort of recall… talking with her… and hearing her responses in his mind. He let a grin break his fanged expression, dropping to nuzzle her cheek and leave a gentle lick. She smiled, the start of a laugh in her throat, and he kissed her before it could escape. Yeah, he'd spoken in his own way. Understanding him was all her work though.

He looked down to see her breathless and smiling, her gentle voice rising up once more to his twitching ears "I suppose that's a good enough answer for me!" Taking another indulgent look into her once more vibrant eyes, Inuyasha reached under her legs and hoisted her into his arms. Her light weight nuzzled against him as he turned to leave through the broken doorway, worrying him briefly with getting her properly fed once they made it into open land, but a new noise cut through his thoughts like a blade.

* * *

"You won't get out that way."

Kagome pulled herself away from the comforting fuzz of Inuyasha's sweater to glare blearily through the dark glass. She could only guess where the deranged scientist could be, hidden as he was amidst his computers. His voice broke loud over the speakers as he continued in a self-satisfied tone "The doors in all the outer corridors are locked. Unless you want to take the time to break every one of them down, I suggest you give it up. By the time you make it back to the stairwell, my men will be there to take you back to your little cages, and we'll just have to start this all over again." His voice dropped to something decidedly sinister as he added "I doubt you'll find the accommodations as pleasant as before."

"Why don't you just accept" Kagome rasped, her tongue sticking uncomfortably to the roof of her mouth, "that you've lost. What's the point in fighting us anymore when your research has been destroyed?"

"What's the point of you trying to escape?" Doctor Honbu countered, "You've been missing for years now, Higurashi. Your pet there doesn't even exist in the eyes of the law. We only bothered holding on to your belongings so that we'd have something to clothe your dead bodies in once we finally finished with you. Who knows how many years it would be before your bones and torn clothes were dug up in some landfill, or dredged up from the river? By then people would have long stopped caring about the mystery of your disappearance. Your family already has."

Kagome listened in brewing silence to the doctor's explanations, but at the mention of her family, her blood ran chill. "Wha… what do you mean? What have you done with them?"

"Us?" The voice over the monitor was surprised, even innocent. " _We've_ done nothing. They moved only six months after you went missing. The shrine's been left to an old caretaker now, and it's closed to visitors. So you see, there's nothing left for you to go back to."

She didn't realize she was shaking until the arms surrounding her tightened, and she felt a leathery nose rustle through the bangs against her forehead. "Y-you're lying. Why should I believe you?" It had to be a trick - there was no way her family would just _leave_. They knew she and Inuyasha were trapped on this side of the well. Even if it had miraculously opened up, her family had to know she'd never have gone back without saying goodbye; she wouldn't abandon them like that... and they wouldn't abandon her.

Doctor Honbu's taunting voice filled the room again, and Kagome's face soured. "It really doesn't matter either way, because you won't be leaving. But by all means, keep arguing - I've got all the time in the world."

Her fingers tightened in the weave of Inuyasha's red sweater, her mind desperately searching for a plan. Pushing worries of home and family aside, Kagome looked to the door behind which the cowardly scientist sat mocking them, and an idea began to brew. Glancing up into the burning eyes of her demon protector, she searched for some sort of signal from him - some clue as to how to proceed. His eyes held hers for only a moment, before being drawn to the dark glass, his lips pulling back in a deadly snarl that rumbled up from his chest. She could feel it course through her body as he held her, and she knew he wouldn't be ready to leave until the man in the other room had been dealt with. That was just fine with her.

She didn't act right away, hesitant to leave the cradle of Inuyasha's embrace and with her body still numb from the tranquilizers, but she willed what little strength she had to one arm and lifted it shakily in the direction of the control room door. Maybe all those tests had been a blessing in disguise; then again, maybe it was all the time she'd spent locked in her mind, alone with her powers. Whatever it was that had honed her skills, she thanked it for allowing her to channel her spiritual powers to the electronic lock, frying its circuits and leaving the demon holding her unscathed.

A garbled cry of outrage rang through the speaker, muffled curses getting lost in the scraping and crashing of chairs as Inuyasha carried Kagome to the ajar door. She clung to his neck as he held her with one arm, tearing the room open with a ferocious growl - but he made no further move inside. Kagome squinted against the black and blue of the monitors, but saw no white lab coat or head of short black hair. The doctor was gone. Across the room, a neon red sign high on the wall drew Kagome's attention to her only possible answer.

She could feel the anger boiling up in the transformed half-demon, and she prodded carefully at his striped cheek to draw his attention. His gaze flicked to her immediately, expectantly, and she wasted no time pointing out their prey's exit. "That door over there - it's the fire escape. It's the only place he could have gone."

He'd crossed the room and almost ripped the door off its hinges before she'd even finished speaking. But they weren't greeted by any doctor - to Kagome's eyes, it was nothing but an endless sea of black. Her heart dropped to her stomach, the flicker of hope she'd had since Inuyasha's arrival dimming at the prospect of having to find their way through the dark expanse... but then she heard a familiar noise. A persistent snuffling above her head, and she felt the sharp rise and fall of a hard chest as her half-demon took quick lung-fulls of air. Two longer inhales followed, and then his breath rolled over his lips in a predatory purr. Without warning he plunged them into the darkness, his hold on Kagome firm but careful, and she tucked herself against his thundering chest as he raced them towards the scent of the escaping doctor.

* * *

*Author's Note: A little later than I wanted this to be updated, but I've had a pretty busy summer so far. Still…. This has actually been coming along a lot faster than I'd anticipated! Here's hoping I can keep up the pace! I'll try to have the next chapter up in another two weeks! And next week I'll try to update one of my other fics (namely Dizzy Defense for an Underdog, if you happen to be reading that one :P) A fic a week is my goal, and it's been… mostly working. The days have been varying, but I've been mostly sticking to that schedule. Ish. Well, it's better than I _was_ doing!

Anyways… we're moving on to the next stage here! Things are starting to wrap up, but they're not out of the dog-house yet! What tricks does Doctor Honbu still have up his sleeve, and what happened to Kagome's family?!


	10. Chapter 10

Abnormalities, Chapter Ten

* * *

Slit pupils widened in the darkness, taking in every tiny flashing light, every reflection off a metal door handle. He didn't need to see where he was going – where the previous environments had been lifeless and void, this area reeked of scents that assaulted the demon's nose in a cacophony. All of them were unpleasant and decaying; between the heady stench of rats and the sour smell of machine oil, the only thing keeping the demon from gagging was the pleasing aroma wafting from the girl in his arms. But he couldn't let himself focus on that – he was hunting another scent altogether: the tang of perspiration and strange medicinal herbs left a trail so pungent that even the black hallways couldn't swallow it. A growl of victory rumbled in Inuyasha's throat as the scent grew thicker in the air. He was closing in on his prey.

His bare feet pounded the gritty floor as he made for the smell, not bothering to hide his approach, his mind all but consumed in the thrill of an impending kill. The scent vanished almost immediately. Inuyasha jolted to a stop in the darkness, breathing hard, his arms squeezing his delicate cargo to him as his mind swirled with the strange phenomenon. Carefully he retraced his steps until the man's stench filled his black nose once more, and his eyes cut through the dark to see the thin lines of a doorway and faint lights that marked the entry buttons.

The girl in his arms rustled at the displeased growl rumbling through his chest. Her dark-rimmed eyes blinked tiredly up at him, squinting as she tried to see, and Inuyasha snarled in frustration. With demon blood pumping through his veins, he just didn't have the patience to explain things to her, or time to feel guilty for disturbing her much needed rest. As gently as he could with his talon-like claws and lingering desire for blood, he unfolded the girl's hand from her lap and stretched it out in the darkness, until it lay across the glowing buttons. A small gasp of surprise slipped past her lips, and the demon felt only the slightest tickle through his arms as she released a surge of power into the mechanism beneath her fingers.

The doors slipped open to the sound of sizzling wires, and Inuyasha stepped back with a hiss, clutching the girl close to his chest. He could feel the air from the hallway slide past his feet as it fell into the pit before him, pulling him towards the echoing sound of a cavern so deep he couldn't even guess where the bottom lie. His mind reeled, unable to account for the sensory detail around him. The man had come through this door – he was sure of it! But his scent disappeared almost at once, as though he'd been taken away. Had he fallen? Taking a long sniff of the air coming from the cavern, Inuyasha ruled out that possibility. There was no scent of blood or death, as there would have been from such a drop.

"The elevator."

His human shifted in his grasp, and he looked down at her in the dark as she continued weakly "He… he must have taken the elevator. He's in a box – another room, sort of. It moved him from this floor down to a different one."

Inuyasha understood enough of her words to come to a decision. They needed to enter that strange, dark chasm to continue the chase. In one swift move he'd shrugged her out of his arms and onto his back. Her breath escaped in a violent gasp, and she clung tightly to his collar, trying not to choke him as he grasped beneath her legs in support. "Hoooold…" he rasped over his shoulder, and after a moment felt the gentle nudge of her face nodding against his neck. Slowly extracting his hands from around her, giving her time to secure her weight, he approached the ledge. Her knees squeezed his hips in a vice, her body pressing to him with what must have been all the strength left in her limbs; he wanted to hold her, but his arms were needed for other things.

Slowly he leaned forward, hands at the ready to reach back and catch the frail body grasping his back should her strength give out. The darkness was almost impenetrable, even for his demonic sight, but he didn't need to see far. At once his gaze caught on a pattern of rungs jutting out from the wall, and his clawed hand grasped one to test its strength. It held firm. Securing his other arm beneath the girl, he shifted his grip and swung till his feet came in contact with the rungs lower down. There was the briefest tightening of the arms around his neck, but his human didn't make a sound. "Tiiight…" he urged once more, forcing out words which echoed in the cavern, "Hoold tiiight." His arm left its place around her back, and slowly he descended the metal wall.

The vertical tunnel echoed with the sounds of their descent. Every scrape of Inuyasha's rough hands against the metal rungs was as loud as an ocean wave, and the harsh breathing that reached his flickering ears was a howling wind. He didn't understand how his prey could remain silent and hidden from his senses when every other sign of life was so magnified. The girl at his back tightened her vice-like hold on his collarbone, careful not to constrict his neck and ever aware of the movement of his shoulders underneath her grip. Inuyasha's sharp eyes noticed the thin edges of portals like the one they'd entered through, but waited for a sign of the box Kagome had spoken of. Minutes passed as he descended the wall, and each passing second caused his aggression and bloodlust to build. That man was getting farther and farther away; his prey was escaping. _No_ prey escaped _him_.

He barely managed to bite back a nasty snarl as Kagome's arms tightened their hold, his attention redirecting to the fragile human on his back. Going faster would risk her stability, and he wouldn't take the chance of her falling off. No matter how much he wanted to tear the man who'd hurt her limb from limb… it would all be in vain if she never made it out alive. His focus went back to the steady pattern of rungs under his feet, to the weight against him and the strength in the arms around his neck, and the demon continued downward.

The grating of metal and wire snapped the demon into stillness. Echoes surrounded the pair in a dissonance of noise, but Inuyasha didn't need to look far for the source. Metal ropes extending the vertical length of the cavern had begun to move, sliding nearly against each other in opposing directions. There was another sound far below him – something large was at the bottom of these ropes, and growing farther away. Glancing down past his bare feet, Inuyasha could just make out the silhouette of a rectangular object disappearing into the darkness. His lips pulled back in the feral grin of a fox closing in on an unsuspecting rabbit. He'd found his prey.

Placing a sturdy arm behind the ever-weakening girl at his back, Inuyasha coiled against the wall, his thigh muscles bunching before he pushed off from the cold concrete and leapt down towards the escaping shadow.

* * *

He knew it did nothing – he knew the machine would only respond in its set pattern and couldn't understand his urgency – and yet Doctor Honbu continued to smash the first-floor button until it was nearly jammed into the panel. The countdown above the sliding doors paid no heed to his staccato heartbeat, its slow creep towards 'one' making him sweat more with each passing second. Just a few more numbers – just a few more floors and he'd be safe. No other floors would open to him – he'd made sure of that when he'd activated the security system to keep out the psychotic dog.

The first floor though, just a step above the labs where Subject K-9 had been held, was separate from those systems. It lay just underground, below the false entryway and lobby where curious officials were met and misdirected. There were no offices, or labs. It was a floor with no doctors, and no patients. It had only one lock, and was never in need of a guard. The LED display above the doors read '2', and Doctor Honbu allowed himself a grin: this would either be his escape, or the most perfect trap.

His voice rose in a sharp curse as something collided with the roof of the elevator. It jerked violently, surging downwards, and the doctor fell in a heap on the floor to see a dent in the metal above his head. The box's momentum was cut short by the electronic cables as the elevator finally reached its destination, and Doctor Honbu scrambled on hands and knees to exit the contraption as the doors slid open onto a black hallway. Snarls and the tearing of metal and plastic was already close behind him.

Legs aching under strain and a myriad of forming bruises, Doctor Honbu sprinted the length of the hall to a set of heavy doors at the end. His fingers punched in the required code, almost mixing the numbers in his haste, but it was a matter of seconds before the doors unlocked and the harried doctor slipped through. He turned to see the glow of red eyes approaching down the dark hallway, and flinched even as the lock clicked into place behind him.

The whir of machinery in the room set him somewhat at ease, but the feeling didn't last long as something collided with the door in a rattling thud. Backing further into the room, the doctor brushed sweat-slicked strands of black hair from his forehead as he watched the red-eyed monster deliver one powerful punch after another to the bullet-proof glass. The Higurashi girl stood off to the side, her gaze vacant and face colorless, and the doctor let slip a tiny grin. He slipped further into the shadows, not stopping until he felt biting metal at his back and a panel of switches under his shaking fingers. The first pane of glass on the doors had shattered.

* * *

Kagome glanced down at pale, shivering hands, the sound of Inuyasha's growls falling away to nothing as she willed her body to respond. She'd been well cared for by her demon protector through their dizzying drop through the elevator shaft; he'd kept a tight grip on her slight figure as he'd pinballed off service ladders and narrow ledges, eventually catching up with the escaping compartment. But the moment he'd set her before the door lock, she'd known something was off. She'd felt something sizzle briefly through her body at their approach, but no matter how hard she willed it, her spiritual energy refused to manifest. Inuyasha hadn't bothered to wait for her powers before his fist rammed into the thick pane of glass.

She felt drained, and passed the feeling off almost at once as exhaustion. But the longer they stood before those doors, desperation fueling them, the more Kagome realized this was no ordinary fatigue. With a final roar and vicious punch the glass shattered and carried Inuyasha through with the momentum. His fist was streaked with angry scratches that at once began to bead with blood; he would heal within a matter of minutes, but the fragile human girl who followed him carefully tiptoed through the wreckage of broken glass. Inuyasha was too far gone with bloodlust to help her over the mess.

He was on Doctor Honbu within seconds of breaking the glass, his powerful fingers still bleeding and wrapped around the man's thin neck. His red eyes grew large and his fangs were on full display as he grinned devilishly down at the choking doctor. A warning growl built up in his throat as Doctor Honbu struggled to get away. Realizing escape was impossible, the human went limp in Inuyasha's vice-like grip, his brown eyes wide as a rabbit's in a snare. The growl inside the demon bubbled into a dark laugh. "Vermin" he snarled, and Doctor Honbu's eyes shot wide at the coherency in the word. "I wanna make this laaaast…." His voice fell into growling as he shoved the doctor against the machine at his back. "But I'm too damn eager to watch you die." Inuyasha's clawed hand rose beside them, talons poised to plunge through the scientist's heart; until he noticed the doctor wasn't paying any attention to the tool of his demise. His eyes were focused on the panel beneath his trembling fingertips, already powered up and humming. The demon's body jolted into action, not knowing what the buttons would do but certain that he had to stop them – and then Kagome screamed.

It tore through her already dry throat, rasping and harsh, and Kagome buckled to the concrete floor clutching her heart. Rocking on her knees, Kagome shut her eyes, as if such a move could keep her spiritual energy from being wrenched away. She could feel her power being drawn out with even more force than Kanna's mirror drawing away her soul. "KAGOME!" The sound of her half-demon's voice broke through her own screams, her mind distantly registering the gruffness that meant his demon blood was still rushing strong.

"Not so fast, K-9!"

A body hit the concrete with a sick thud – but the voice accompanying the sound was all wrong. Forcing the pain away, Kagome lifted her head to see Inuyasha sprawled mere feet from her, still reaching toward her. His breath came is harsh gasps, reminding the girl sharply of that moment only days ago when she'd accidently hit him with her purifying powers. Had she… lost control? Had she hurt him?

The doctor's mad, barking laugh tore the heavy atmosphere. He was still at his place beside the panel of switches, a wild gleam in his eye as he shouted "Nice, isn't it? I told you Miss Higurashi, we're running on your power. You've turned this facility into a ticking bomb for your precious pooch." He chuckled, waving an arm around the tanks and coils and gauges filling the room, before locking eyes with Kagome. "And welcome to the epicenter!"

Her mind raced with the doctor's accusations. How had they managed all this? How could they have taken from her something so precious, so intangible, and twisted it into this _weapon_? Images of electric-lit rooms surged up from some buried corner of memory – of wires, _so many wires_ , and pulses that shook her entire body. She'd been to this place before.

"You see, Higurashi? This room was built to syphon your specific energy waves. We may not understand them, but we can harness them. Oh, and did I forget to mention? We can transmit them too." His fingers made the most minute movement, turning a small dial to the right as a hum began to fill the room. Inuyasha's labored breathing became a high, pitiful whimper, his body convulsing.

"STOP IT!" She was at the demon's side at once, turning him onto his back and cupping his sweat-slicked cheek. Whatever they'd done to her spiritual powers had changed it: the waves of energy traveled straight through her, as though she weren't even there, attacking the invisible energy inside Inuyasha like purging fire. "Turn off the machine! _Please_!"

"And let myself be killed by him? I'd rather not." He turned the dial higher, and the current of energy throughout the room was palpable. Inuyasha's whines rose into pained yells. Kagome could see the marks on his face fading, and the red glow slipping away beneath squinting eyelids. His cries became even more tortured and his skin burned beneath her hands. This was killing him. _She_ was killing him.

Staggering to her feet, Kagome rushed Doctor Honbu with rage in her grey eyes. His finger turned the dial further, and a ragged scream flew up behind her. She froze. "I wouldn't try anything if I were you" he shouted across the room, "unless you both want to end up as corpses here." The doctor's lip was turned up into a sneer, but Kagome saw the fear lurking just behind it.

"What do you mean both of us?" She took a cautious step back towards Inuyasha, hoping the Doctor would follow suit and turn the dial down to a lower notch. He didn't.

"You think I'm going to take any more risks with the two of you?" The black fringe of his hair stuck around his sweating temples framing glaring eyes. "You think either of your lives are more valuable than mine? What I mean by 'both', miss Higurashi, is that either you and the dog come back with me as cadavers" his fingers turned the dial a fraction further, sparks of electricity dancing over the wires and coils in the room, "or _none_ of us are leaving this place alive."

He read the shock on her features, impossible to miss, and laughed. "You thought we were still bargaining, did you? Thought I'd give you the option to come back to the lab quietly so you could sit and plot some more? No, Subject H. You lost that chance when you destroyed Mister Tanagawa's body. And as for me? My life's work is in you two. If I can't have you, you can be damn sure I won't let anyone else have you either." His gaze darkened, his hand reaching into his doctor's robe and extracting a syringe. "So you see, I've got nothing left to lose, and you've got nothing more to gain. You should thank me for offering you a release." Uncapping the tool, he gave it an appraising look, and turned back to Kagome. "What'll it be? You can make this death quick and painless, or I can turn this dial to its max and we'll find out what an explosion looks like at the source."

Kagome clenched her teeth, her legs shaking as they attempted to support her exhausted body. She was just so _tired_. Far too tired to wrestle the man away from the damned panel of buttons and knobs. Her head was spinning, her fingers trembling, and her eyes were beginning to sting from the frustration of it all. Then a feverishly warm hand grasped her ankle, and she jumped. Shining grey eyes looked down to a face without markings, to eyes as blinding white and yellow as the summer sun. Although the strain was apparent in every crease on his face, it couldn't mask the determination.

"Do it Kagome. Don't worry about me. Just hurry up and fry his ass." He smirked, all arrogance and bravado, and it was as if the old Inuyasha was back, revived from the dust of Feudal Japan. His hair was long and glistening, a healthy glow to his face and his ears intact. But she shook her head, and the illusion vanished.

"I can't Inuyasha – I won't. I won't kill you just to get away."

"Who said anything about killin' me?" he groused, his brows knitting as he bit back a groan of pain. "You think I'm afraid of your powers? What's the worst you could do? Purify me? Turn me human?"

"Your body hasn't recovered" she argued, fists clenching as they used to in the wake of his stubbornness. "Even if all I did was 'turn you human', you wouldn't survive it. I nearly lost you that way already." Her persistence made no difference to him; he scoffed, pushing against her leg with all the strength of a newborn. "Just do whatever it was you did in the labs and destroy this place. I'll be fine."

Worrying her bottom lip between her teeth, Kagome fell to her knees beside him, leaning over his curled body. He could barely turn his head to face her. Her hand slapped the concrete floor, the sting lost in the vibrations she felt running through the ground. "How?" she yelled hoarsely, "How do you know that?!"

"Because I know you." It was all he could say before his eyes pinched shut and he slumped boneless to the ground. His hair was melting into black – she had run out of time.

"Finished, Subject H?"

Kagome stood up silently, dragging her eyes from the lifeless body of her beloved half-demon to the impatient doctor. The balls of her feet throbbed as she strode purposefully towards the man, noting a flicker of something uncertain in his eyes as she approached. She didn't have a plan, didn't know how to harness the raw energy coursing through her veins – but she wouldn't let it end like this. Three years of her life had been stolen from her by this monster in a lab coat. He wouldn't take any more.

The machinery under his fingers began to snap and sizzle as she got closer, and Dr. Honbu jumped away from the dial he'd been so possessively guarding. "Rrrgh! Just give it up!" he shrieked, futily backing against the still sparking machinery. "What do you even expect to _do_ out there, in the real world? You're abnormal – both of you! You don't belong and you know it!" Kagome stopped her advance, and the doctor paused as well, breathing heavily. "I was only trying to give you a purpose" he gasped, "A way to contribute to the good of humanity. It's better than being a pair of useless freaks, isn't it?" The young woman's brow knit in anger, but Dr. Honbu pressed on. "What, were you really planning to live a normal little life in Tokyo with a dog-eared super human? Were you going to keep him locked up at your shrine, or did you still think you could parade him around the streets and no one would notice? Believe me Higurashi, we're not the only ones who've seen him. And I'm not the only one willing to take drastic steps for science."

His words pierced straight through her defenses like poisonous thorns, the hidden truths behind the lies seeping toward her heart quicker than venom. They could never go back to the way things were, she knew that… but even a life of secrecy was better than this hell.

Kagome took another bold step, and the doctor stumbled away along the wall of machinery, his bravado slipping away with every closed inch between them. Dr. Honbu's eyes flickered from the dirty feet of the girl to her stalwart grey gaze, his teeth tightly clenched and fingers reaching blindly for some hope of salvation in the dark room. He never noticed her own reaching fingers.

He was too far away from the control panel by the time Kagome had reached the knob, and his voice rose into a snarling shout of "little _BITCH_ " as she turned the power dial back down to zero. At once the room quieted, a deathly quiet as the doctor held his breath, but Kagome wasn't done. Laying her hand over the control panel, she focused all her thoughts on the motionless half-demon behind her. She didn't notice the doctor charging forward blindly, or the stir of movement in the prone form on the floor. All she could feel was the build up of spiritual energy at her core, her thoughts consumed with worry for Inuyasha. A quick, soft breath, and her power released.

Doctor Honbu's body was hurled back against a wall of smoking, sparking equipment, crying out sharply as he slumped to the floor. The already dark room became blacker with billows of smoke as fires sparked inside the generators and snapped wires ignited every flammable surface. Kagome wobbled under the sudden heaviness of her body. A cough wracked through her, her lungs desperately searching for oxygen, and her knees buckled at the jolt. She fell, ready to slip back into the darkness of her mind –

But then a pair of arms caught her, warm and so carefully strong, and she turned her watering eyes back to see shining red and blue. "Knew… you could do it…" he growled low in her ear. He didn't stop to see her grateful smile as she was hoisted into his grasp and rushed through the busted glass of the shattered door. Alarms were already sounding in the hallway, a constant flashing of red filling the otherwise sterile space. Inuyasha paused in the corridor, calculating eyes locked onto the broken elevator. The tunnel it led to was lifeless, and demon-minded Inuyasha felt it pointless to seek escape through there. Roving eyes took in every detail that the flashes of red revealed to him, desperately searching for a promise of freedom. The girl in his arms had already breathed in too much smoke.

Finally he saw something separate from the red illumination around him: a sign above a doorway, shining green, with strange characters that he recognized from upstairs. He raced for it at once, his demon-powered legs delivering a kick that made keys pointless, and passed under the glowing 'exit' sign to a flight of stairs.

* * *

The immaculate lobby was filled with the sound of a fire alarm, the usual receptionists and tour guides to the false research facility on their way out of the building as security guards phoned nervously from different floors trying to ascertain the source of the fire. They'd only managed to override the door locks for a few select rooms by the time the piercing bells had begun to shriek their warning.

The few guards left loitering about the main floor were thrown into a panic by the ground-rattling thuds that erupted from the door to the stair-well. By the time the door swung open with a crack against the opposite wall, the unnarmed men were too frazzled with nerves to do more than stare as a blur of red, white and black sped through the sunlit lobby towards the already open entrance.

No one could be quite sure afterwards just what it was they'd seen speed through the front doors of the building and out into blinding sunlight. After all, it had leapt almost at once into the foliage of trees surrounding the lab property, and no amount of searching by curious lab assistants ever turned up more than a skittering squirrel.

* * *

The trees ended abruptly, pulling a frustrated growl from the dog demon who'd been hoping for a forest to hide in. He settled in the sturdy crook of a branch and paused to gain his bearings. A bird chirped nearby, the whistle of wind through leaves disturbed by the distant roar of those metal carriages that sped through Kagome's village like blundering boars. Warmth settled on the skin of Inuyasha's cheeks and nose as a gust of wind separated the branches overhead… and he closed his red eyes, breathing deeply of the open air. It may have been tinged with gasoline and acrid waste, but… it was _alive_.

Drinking in a few more lungfuls of warm spring wind, Inuyasha let his red eyes fall to the sleeping girl in his arms. He nuzzled her cheek with his black-tipped nose, vainly hoping for the warm sun to wake her up, but even his hazy mind knew this was no normal sleep. She'd given everything with that last burst of power, and her soul had withdrawn inside the protective shell of her body, seeking to heal itself… not unlike the demon blood coursing through _him_ , keeping his own vulnerabilities safe and locked away.

Inuyasha adjusted Kagome slightly so he could slip lower in the tree boughs, peering through the leaves at the city sprawling out below and beyond. The research facility was on a sloping hill, but even at this height the buildings had begun to sprawl up the mountain's sides. Red and blue eyes peered carefully at the structures, noting which roofs were flat and which were too uneven to cross. Within seconds he'd mapped out a path across them, and assuring no one was around to see, jumped down to the grassy floor and sped towards his first target.

* * *

Kagome couldn't be sure she wasn't dreaming as her eyes fluttered open onto an orange and purple skyline. She shivered, folding her arms against the thick weave of her sweater and drawing her legs in close to her body. The ground beneath her was hard, and there was a wall at her back, but all around her was open air, hedged in by a concrete barrier and falling shadows. She blinked, unsure what to believe. There was no one else about, but something in her foggy mind knew she hadn't been alone.

Her skin prickled as a new presence made itself known, and she gasped as a figure dropped from above her, crouching in the deep shadows cast by the setting sun. Her fright melted in joyful recognition at the silhouetted dog ears and shining red eyes, and she scrambled away from her resting place to fall into Inuyasha's reaching arms. He grasped her to him as she shuddered with wide-eyed remembrance. Everything they'd gone through in those labs, their last struggle against Doctor Honbu, surfaced with violent clarity as she buried her fists in Inuyasha's red sweater. But then she heard the distant thrum of car engines, and felt a gust of cool air against her cheek, and the realization struck her: they'd escaped.

She burrowed further into Inuyasha's warm embrace, and he growled softly as his clawed hand came up to brush down her hair. "Inuyasha" she started after a moment of peaceful silence, "… do you know where we are?" Kagome couldn't tell how far into his transformation he was, or how well he'd be able to understand and respond, but she was anxious to try. She'd missed their conversations so much.

The demon didn't respond with words however, merely shaking his head from side to side. A regretful sigh slipped past Kagome's lips, but she was quick to give Inuyasha a smile as he leaned down to peer into her face with concern. "It's okay," she said, her hand drifting over his chest to stroke his arm through the thick red sweater. "We'll figure it out." Kagome kept her worries to herself; whether he understood or not, she didn't need to burden her protector with any thoughts but their safety. The matters of how they'd get home, and where they were, and how they'd find food, were concerns she locked away to worry about later.

Settling back against the cold wall and wrapping her arms around folded knees, Kagome found herself relaxing for the first time in weeks. With Inuyasha right across from her, watching her with veiled interest, she let herself close her eyes for just a moment and bask in the glow from the far sunset.

A sharp pain pulsed in her stomach, reminding Kagome that she hadn't eaten anything since her entrapment with Inuyasha the day before. Had it really been only a day since their time together in his cage? Rubbing absently at her stomach, she realized the question of food would need to be answered sooner rather than later.

It _was_ answered, and much sooner than expected as a hard object nudged her crossed arms, and Kagome looked up to see her vision filled with rubbery white and trimmed in green leaves. "Inuyasha…" she whispered in awe, taking the large, fresh daikon radish reverently from his claws, "how did you get this?" Her mouth was already watering as she brushed her fingers over the radish's tough skin, but a sudden savory-sweet scent managed to draw her attention away from the vegetable. The demon before her pulled a box from behind him, and from its depths drew out a small paper tray with- "Takoyaki?" Kagome nearly dropped the daikon in her haste to get to the little round pancakes, and somehow managed to balance both on her lap as she closed her eyes and breathed deeply of the sweet sauce covering the octopus treats. It was still warm in her hands, and Kagome realized Inuyasha must have snatched them from a street-vendor's cart. The daikon was likely pilfered in the same manor. He pushed the box closer, and Kagome peered over the edge, her breath catching as she caught sight of the prize inside. More than a dozen cooked clams glistened in the fading light, and a bag full of strawberries sat nestled beside them. It was a veritable feast, and Kagome could do little more than gape at Inuyasha, whose face lit up in a proud smirk.

"This is amazing" she murmured, picking up a round takoyaki and biting into it. Her eyes closed, and she sagged in food-induced euphoria. A low rumble sounded before her, and she opened her eyes to see her grinning demon chuckle at her reaction. She smiled in response, and held out her hand with the remainder of her treat. "Here" she prodded, watching his grin become curiosity. "Try it. It's really good!"

Inuyasha leaned forward and carefully sniffed the foreign object. He ignored Kagome's giggles at his puppy-like expression, and carefully nipped the tasty smelling treat from her fingers. It wasn't long before the demon's thoughtful chewing became greedy, and he snatched Kagome's wrist as she took another Takoyaki from the tray. Her breath caught as his hungry mouth slipped over her fingers in his haste. A warm blush spread across her cheeks as he pulled her hand in closer to lick away the sauce and clinging bonito flakes, the fire spreading a little further as his red and blue eyes peered open to meet hers across their joined hands. The air between them felt heavy and charged, and Kagome wondered if he could feel it too. She wondered if it was on purpose.

Dropping her hand, Inuyasha crept closer, his eyes never leaving hers until he was settled beside her with his back to the concrete wall. She held his intense gaze for as long as she could, and just when she thought to turn away, his clawed hand reached out to cup her cheek and pull her closer. Kagome's eyes fluttered closed at the contact. His hot breath brushed over her parted lips, her hands carefully moving the food from her lap as she leaned further into him – and she shivered as his lips pressed to hers, his tongue sneaking out to trace the curve of her mouth. She sighed against him, her hands reaching out to grasp his shoulders and anchor herself….

He leaned back out of her reach before she could touch him, and her eyes blinked slowly open to see him looking positively mischievous, licking his lips. It took Kagome a moment to gather her wits, but it wasn't much longer before she realized what he'd really been after: the last bits of sweet sauce clinging to her mouth. He'd been teasing her.

Kagome stared at the demon-man, unable to comprehend his sudden change in behavior. His ever wary, alert protectiveness? Perfectly normal in this state. Concern enough for her health that he'd risk stealing a box full of food? She'd expect nothing less. But a childish prank and a playful kiss? Still grinning, Inuyasha reached for their personal cornucopia and pulled out a clam, prying it open without the slightest bit of resistance. Kagome watched, noting the ease in his movements, his comfort at her side, and smiled. Despite the red in his eyes and the marks on his face, it appeared his human heart wasn't quite as buried as it had been before.

* * *

*Author's Note:

Try not to think about how long it's been since this updated, and take joy in their escape! *sweating nervously* yeah I know, it's been a loooong time.

Anyways, THIS IS NOT THE END! Just wanna make that clear. There's still the matter of these two actually making it back to the shrine/well... and then there's the little loose end concerning a certain crazed doctor. Inuyasha is well aware that he didn't get to crush the man's skull. The repercussions of that remain to be seen.

I have much more in store for this fic, but it's still winding down to a finale, so please stay tuned! And thank you for reading/supporting this story!


	11. Chapter 11

Abnormalities, Chapter Eleven

* * *

Inuyasha grit his teeth as he braced further against the top of the speeding metal monster. His body pressed against the sleeping human beneath him, stretched out across their transport with his frame caging her in. Between the hair whipping around his eyes, the stench of motor fuel, and his ears plastered to his skull against the wind, it was impossible to keep track of his fragile human girl's condition; the only thing keeping him sane was the steadying beat of her heart beneath his.

The flimsy metal contraption didn't move nearly fast enough for him. He'd been dying to run – he still was – but the human girl had needed to rest, and this 'train' as she'd called it was a smoother ride than being jostled on his back. At least, that's what she'd insisted; with its constant stops and annoying vibrations, Inuyasha didn't know how the human could sleep through it all.

Of course, she _was_ exhausted: her fatigue wasn't from using her powers alone, it was a culmination of days, weeks, years spent fighting for her life. And she hadn't eaten nearly enough earlier. The food he'd brought had been greatly welcomed, but her shrunken stomach could only handle a few bites of each gift he'd secured before she began pushing the offerings away. Inuyasha had finished off what was left, and his body was already bursting with reserves of energy. He could've run them all the way to Tokyo if she'd allowed it.

As it was, Inuyasha was given the task of watching for the next milestone in their road: a city named "Chiba". He listened carefully at each stop for word of their arrival, sharp eyes searching for the kanji his human girl had scratched into the sand for him. She was trusting him to get her home, and that was exactly what he would do.

The demon heard word of Chiba sooner than expected, regretfully shaking his companion awake as they sped toward the station. She hadn't been able to rest nearly long enough, but only she knew where these iron trails led and which one they needed to follow. A tired moan fluttered up from the girl, and Inuyasha leaned down to nuzzle her neck with his cold nose in as comforting a manner as he could, waiting for her eyes to open. He was rewarded for the gesture with a tiny smile and a warm hand stroking his striped cheek.

A clamor rose from the station nearly a mile off, and a growl rumbled in Inuyasha's throat as he flattened himself over the girl, hiding her from sight. The sun had long ago descended behind the hills, and the moon was still only a sliver in the sky, but the train's lights and ambient glow of the surrounding towns were bright enough to cause the demon concern. His arrogance told him he could handle anything that came their way; the past three years told him the opposite.

"We there already?" Her whisper brushed through the rushing air to his twitching dog-ears. He grunted a confirmation, and dug his claws lightly into the sheet metal as the train came to a jerky stop. A tinny, electronic voice passed through the station, saying something about five minutes before the next departure. He understood the voice, just as he now understood the sentences his human… no, his _Kagome_ said to him in her sweet voice – he just didn't care to give the station voice his attention. There were more important things to focus on, like keeping himself and his girl hidden from the masses of commuters exiting the machine beneath them.

"Inuyasha… get off at the next stop." He turned his face down, meeting Kagome's sleepy grey eyes. "It's still too busy right now. If we go straight to Tokyo, we'll be seen for sure. We need to wait for it to get a little later." Inuyasha nodded, and she gave him a soft smile, her eyes falling closed as the train began to slide forward with a jarring scrape. Settling down again for the next stretch of their ride, Inuyasha looked once more at the young woman cuddled under him. Her eyes were scrunched, a crease forming between her brows. The soft curve of her lip was turned down in a frown that Inuyasha couldn't bear to see; they were free, and soon she'd be safe at home. Confused but unwilling to let that pained expression remain, Inuyasha ducked his head to nuzzle her temple, his nose shifting through her hair as it whipped around their faces and taking a calming sniff. His lips met her skin, licking softly until her stressed expression gave way to mirth. Her muffled giggling was the proof of his success.

As per her orders, Inuyasha gathered Kagome in his arms as the train approached the next stop and leapt for the nearest roof over the packed platforms. It was too cold a night to remain so exposed, and the demon searched carefully for a place of cover, creeping over the awnings until the sound of shoes and conversation was a distant hum. Dropping them down behind a pillar of a deserted platform, Inuyasha set Kagome on her feet and held her close, holding his breath as he listened for signs that they'd been spotted. The hum didn't change – they were in the clear.

Kagome was already glancing about the station for something, her eyes settling on the far wall before turning back up to her protector. "Can you take me over to that map?" she pointed to a chart on the far wall, adding after a small yawn "That'll let me know which train to take when we need to leave." Checking once more for peeping eyes, Inuyasha carefully helped Kagome across the cold, hard ground until she stood before the image of tangled, multicolored lines. Her eyes narrowed in her scrutiny, a shaky finger lifting to trace one line in particular. Having found the right one, she turned back to Inuyasha with a smile. "This line runs to Tokyo all night – every hour. We can go whenever we're ready." Kagome made to walk away then, back to their hiding place, but she swayed with the movement and stumbled back. Inuyasha caught her without a sound.

They were tucked away in a dark corner before Kagome even had a chance to thank the demon. He pressed her against the wall once more, blocking her from view with his body, and Kagome fought back a smile to realize he was much more conspicuous than her with his bright red sweater and white hair. There was no one more careful than her protector though, and she knew she had nothing to fear. If only he'd been as careful three years ago, if only she hadn't distracted him so much and insisted on taking him to such crowded places, maybe they never would have….

Her arms wrapped around his waist, needing to feel him securely against her. He growled low, lifting a hand from the wall to trace her arm, and ducked his nose into her hair. She could feel each deep breath he took, taking in her scent without a care of being caught, and Kagome nuzzled into the warmth of his sweater with a sigh.

She didn't mean to at first, but as her head lifted to catch her demon's attention, her lips brushed his chin setting her with chills like an electric current. Kagome breathed out softly, slowly, and lifted herself on her toes to reach higher. Butterfly kisses dotted across his jaw and cheek, and when he turned his face to her, her lips turned their attentions to his with a more pressing caress. His body was a wonderful beacon of heat as he pressed her against the concrete wall. Without realizing she hitched up one of her legs, rubbing her bare skin against his sweatpants for warmth, creating a whole other kind of friction between them. Inuyasha tugged at her lip with sharp fangs, and snarled wildly as he accidentally nicked the tender skin and tasted her blood in his mouth. Kagome winced at the sting of his tongue against her torn flesh, but the hurt vanished quickly under the soft caress. It seemed his healing saliva worked on humans after all.

"Ngh… sorry" he muttered against her mouth, slowing his attack to a mere press of his lips against hers. Kagome smiled breathlessly against him; she'd come to treasure every hard-fought word from him, and that simple utterance was enough to send her heart soaring. "I love you, Inuyasha" she whispered into his ear as he dropped lower to kiss her neck, "I love you so much. Always have, always will."

He didn't respond, and she didn't need him to: the way his lethal claws crept so carefully across her face to bury themselves in her hair, tilting her head back to let him kiss her harder… that was answer enough.

"Hey, what's going on over there?!"

Inuyasha broke from her tempting neck red-eyed and snarling, pushing her head to his chest and peering over his shoulder at the approaching station guard. Kagome fought against the grip, trying to whisper soothing words to the demon and get him to release her; she had to act fast before things got ugly for the unsuspecting intruder. Finally catching on to her intention, Inuyasha released the girl enough for her to shimmy from her pinned position and place herself between the human and demon. The clawed grip on her hand was a firm reminder to hurry and send the stranger away.

"Oh, sorry sir! We're just waiting for the next train." Her voice was a little hoarse still, and she desperately hoped the guard couldn't make out her pale, bruised skin in the darkness. She looked a little too much like a victim of some brutal assault, and the tall, brawny form of the man behind her fit the profile of an abuser all too well. The uniformed man squinted in the dim station light, small eyes nearly disappearing in his round cheeks, until he'd deemed the situation harmless and began to turn back.

"Fine, but wait with the others. And keep that kinda behavior at home!" Kagome heard him mumbling something about "young punks" and "public indecency" before she lost sight of him among the station pillars, and as soon as he'd vanished, the hand holding her arm yanked her back into the shadow of the wall. The red-eyed demon gave her a daring smirk as if to say 'where were we?' and caught her lips with his again. She couldn't fight a responding grin, but patted a small hand on his arm to draw his attention, pushing him back slightly as he broke away with an accusing glare.

"I don't think this is gonna work" she said softly, watching Inuyasha's head cock to the side in confusion. "I mean waiting around at stations like this" she said with an affectionate smile. "We're still too out in the open. I think… I think if we could find the subway, we might stand a better chance at getting home without being spotted or stopped." His chest rumbled in a thoughtful sort of sound, causing Kagome to wonder if he were understanding her any better now. "We need to find the train that goes underground" she explained slowly; "We can follow the tracks, and maybe even follow a train if we find one heading the right way. Either way, it'll be dark. There'll be people there, but not too many, and I think we'll have more places to hide. Alright with you?"

He stared hard at her, processing her words, and finally his head dipped in a nod. Kagome beamed at the gesture. "C'mon" she whispered, turning him around and tugging him down to climb on his back. He caught on immediately and settled her comfortably before leaping down onto the tracks and onto the nearest platform awning.

From rooftop to rooftop they flew, Kagome lightly directing him towards signs for the subway; Inuyasha didn't really need the help, his sharp ears able to detect the trains surging underground, but the gentle whisper of her voice kept him centered. He'd been feeling more and more in control of himself the farther they got from Dr. Honbu's labs. Words were coming easier to him, and he understood the strings of words from Kagome more clearly every hour – yet his demon blood refused to sleep. He could feel it pulsing in his veins, quietly waiting for the slightest hint of danger. There was a distant memory of his sword, Tetsusaiga, that kept nudging his sub-conscious, calling to him across the miles with a welcome promise of balance. At the same time, his demonic brain functions insisted he didn't need the weapon: he was strong like this. He could take care of himself. He was used to this form.

Kagome's light pressure against his back was distracting enough that the battle between his halves never really bothered him as he hopped across buildings. The fact that she loved him as he was, and was comfortable around him even in demon form, kept him from worrying too much about what side of himself to listen to. She would help him figure things out, when the time came.

* * *

"Doctor. Doctor Honbu, can you hear me? We're going to go ahead with the transfusion."

Piercing green eyes turned away from the comatose man on the stark white of the hospital bed, nodding to the nurse beside her. She pursed her lips, breathing in sharply, and pressed the button to start the pumps of the machine feeding into the badly burned patient. As the first wave of foreign blood rushed through his veins, he gave a feeble jolt on the linens, prompting the nurse to lay a firm hand on his trembling body. The woman in charge of his treatment didn't bat an eye.

"This is a normal reaction" she remarked to the nurse, who was struggling to keep the burned doctor from thrashing about. "His body is adjusting. It'll take some time for his organs to fully accept the transfusion – a few weeks maybe." At the nurses look of alarm, she continued confidently "Oh the blood will keep him alive until then, don't worry. And we have enough of the salve to heal those burns by tomorrow. But he won't be up on his own just yet." Sitting back on a swiveling chair, she dismissed the injured man and puzzled nurse with the clattering tap of a keyboard as she entered the examination data. It took a few pointed coughs from the nurse for her to pull her eyes away from the screen with a bored expression and answer sharply "Yes?"

"Doctor Nagawa, I don't understand. Doctor Honbu's blood type is A positive. We have plenty of that type in storage. So why…" she turned curious eyes to the bags hooked to the machine, and looked back at the clipboard in her hand. "Why are we using one labeled 'Type Y'? What does 'Type Y' even mean?"

A crooked smile lifted Doctor Nagawa's lips, and her green eyes shone like neon lights in the reflection off the computer screen. "They didn't tell you? A little 'bio-engineering' experiment. Pet project of the doctor there." She turned away from the nurse, whose mouth hung gaping as she struggled to understand. Far more interesting to the doctor were the vital signs displayed on the screen before her – signs that were growing slowly but steadily stronger. "The 'Y' stands for 'Youkai'. A devil like this should be able to handle some demon blood, don't you think?"

* * *

Kagome gave a gaping yawn as Inuyasha set her back on her feet. He'd been running for what felt like hours now with Kagome on his back, following closely after a subway train bound for the Tokyo hub. His nose had scented the old station long before he'd seen it, and as the train had passed the long-abandoned platform, Inuyasha hopped off the track and into the dark alcove. Blinking away sleep, Kagome peered into the darkness, just making out the arched entrance overhead, and beyond that the shapes of out-of-date turnstiles and benches. There were rumors of abandoned stations like this, subway stops long forgotten as city planners paved them over for another apartment complex or towering department center. Now, cold and riddled with cobwebs, the tomb-like station had become the perfect hideout. Kagome shivered in the dead air, but then the comforting warmth of her protector's arms wound about her in the dark, and any lingering fear melted away. She let him lead her to a bench and didn't protest as he lay her down across its length. Kagome sneezed at the layering of dust over the cold metal, absently brushing some away, until she noticed Inuyasha's shadowy form kneel beside her in the dimness to sit cross-legged beside her, facing out toward the subway tracks. She paused, watching him silently, as a phantom memory crossed her eyes.

 _Moonlight pouring through her window, filtering through half-open curtains and casting odd shadows from her desk across the floor and walls. Her blankets were pulled up to her chin, heavy and pink and printed with flowers, and her pillow was like a cloud, perfectly tailored to cradle her head. It was silent, more silent than sleeping under the stars on the other side of the well, but… it wasn't lonely. How could it be, when she wasn't alone? There was a figure in deep red propped next to her bed, his silver hair shining in those thin rays of moonlight, its color putting the moonbeams to shame, and his adorable little dog ears were flicking every now and then, turning occasionally to catch the sounds of cars, crickets, and neighborhood dogs. One ear swiveled round to her, and she held back a giddy laugh at being caught. It wasn't enough to make him move, so Kagome kept quiet, content to watch him, knowing_ he _was watching out for_ her _. Tetsusaiga sat propped against his shoulder, sturdy and strong and a clear symbol of his intention to protect her no matter where they were, and the sight of it was calming enough that Kagome soon drifted off to pleasant dreams._

Tears stung at the back of Kagome's dry eyes as she relived the memory, and this time she wasn't content to merely watch. Reaching out for him, her shaking fingers found his broad shoulder first. He didn't flinch – no doubt he was aware of every move she made before she made it – and taking this as permission to continue, Kagome trailed her fingers into his choppy hair. Despite the uneven cut, the strands were soft as silk, and glistened in the faint light from the yellow lights in the subway tunnel. Her hand traveled farther upward until she met his damaged ear, and with the gentlest attentions, began to massage it. Inuyasha pushed his head ever so slightly against her fingers, a deep sound rising up from his chest that might have been a sigh, and after a few moments Kagome let her tired fingers fall back down to the neck of his sweater.

She tugged at it weakly, and the demon turned shining red eyes back at her. "Join me?" She whispered, wondering if he could see the pink on her cheeks through all this dark. "I – I'm cold up here, by myself." It wasn't exactly a lie, but in Kagome's mind it was just a poor excuse. In those old days, when he'd kept vigil at her bedside and she'd watched him before drifting off, sometimes she'd had the wild notion to invite him into her bed. It had been a silly fantasy at the time and one she'd never had the courage to follow through on… but things were different now. Everything was different now and, crazy as it seemed, some things were better. Sleeping wrapped in his arms for the past week had spoiled her. Inuyasha didn't answer at first, but his eyes flickered along her form and the bench, as if deliberating. It was narrow now that she thought about it; it would be a tight fit. Perhaps he wouldn't want to –

Her thoughts left off in a gasp as Inuyasha stood suddenly and lifted her up. Before she could realize what he'd done, she was lying atop him as _he_ reclined across the bench. Kagome blinked stupidly, then folded her arms across his chest and said with a smile "Well that's one way to do it." Inuyasha gave her a fanged grin in return, and gripping his shoulders, Kagome pulled herself closer to meet his lips. Growling pleasantly, Inuyasha wrapped his strong arms around her back as he messily returned the kiss, his hands digging into the thick weave of her sweater to push her closer.

Smaller hands left his shoulders, tracing up his neck and diving into his soft hair once more. The demon's long fangs scraped and pulled at her tender lips, but he was careful this time not to break skin. Kagome absently wondered how long it would be before he got careless, and found she wasn't all that worried as his tongue danced with hers. One hand sought out his clipped ear as the other continued to play with his hair, and clawed fingers at her back ceased playing with the hem of her sweater to dive deliberately under the fabric. His skin burned, and Kagome broke from his lips to hiss at the welcome heat. Before Inuyasha could make another move she hiked up her leg at his hip, and placed his warm hand on her thigh, leading him in rubbing the skin with her own. She sighed and dove in for another kiss from her living furnace.

Inuyasha's chest rumbled with laughter, and Kagome was dimly aware of him shifting under her, before he drew up her other leg in the same fashion and rubbed warmth into both of her legs, setting her with goosebumps. She huffed, sure that he was just teasing her now, and traced her hands down his body to the hem of his sweater. Wiggling her fingers underneath his shirt and finding the skin there just as burning, she pulled up the fabric and flattened herself to his warm chest, clamping her arms beneath his shoulders and burrowing her face into the bunched red cloth at his neck. Time slowed down as she clung to him, the heavy throb of his heart loud in her ears, the energetic thrum of his body igniting her blood and jumpstarting her nerves with every beat of his pulse. He was life and warmth and healing, and she would never have enough of him.

But then she thought back to their entrapment, to those days in the cage and that broken voice pleading with her "safe… stay…", how she'd been _his_ life and warmth, his protection from monsters in lab coats, and it was all Kagome could do not to choke him as she dragged herself to his demon-marked face and wrapped desperate arms around his neck. "They'll never tear us apart again" she whispered against his cheek, placing a gentle kiss to the stripe across it. Inuyasha turned his head as if to face her, but she ducked into his shaggy white hair, tucking herself between his body and the back of the bench as she fought off a chill. "I won't ever let anyone take you away from me. I won't ever leave you – I promise. If you go back to the past, so do I. If you live a thousand years, I… I'd sell my soul to demons to have your lifespan. I'd find Princess Kaguya, rescue a turtle and ride it to the dragon king's palace, _anything_."

"Stupid." His breath tousled her hair, lips brushing her ear in a ghostlike touch that sent warm shivers all the way to her toes. The harsh growl was still strong in his voice, but the attitude was just as she remembered as Inuyasha rasped "As if I'd let you." Kagome smiled into his neck, happy with his progress, and trailed her fingers down to nestle under the bunched fabric of his red sweater, palms flattening against his firm chest to soak up his heat.

An amused huff was her only warning before clawed fingers had grasped the hem of her roomy white sweater and dragged it up her torso. It caught in a tangle around her shoulders as he struggled to pull it over her head and she struggled to keep her only warm covering in place, but it only took a moment for Kagome to relinquish the sweater to her protector, trusting he had something better in mind. He growled low, a pleased thrum, and pushed her back gently so he could sit up. Suddenly his own sweater and shirt were gone as well, the only red she could see now the burning crimson of his gaze framed in thick dark lashes, and a flush crept across Kagome's entire body.

The enchanted beads hung heavy around his neck, their polished surface nearly black against his skin, and Kagome sat transfixed at the sight of his broad, muscled form crowned by the symbol of their connection. Her fingers drifted up to the hidden locket against her chest, and she drew it out, gently tracing the edges and brushing a thumb over the warmed metal. Inuyasha watched her small movements, his red eyes softening at the sight of her gift to him, and he reached out a clawed hand to close over hers, entrapping the locket between them. Kagome's eyes snapped to his, cheeks warming at his touch, but he didn't say a word.

His hand left hers to slide over her arm, long fingers pressing into the thin fabric of her shirt, pushing at her back until she was pressed against his chest once more. He eased them both to lie along the bench, tapping at Kagome's legs until she got the hint to hitch them up and curl herself into a ball. She greedily pressed as much of her skin to his as she could, and when he draped both wool sweaters atop her, Kagome nearly whimpered at how good it all felt. She swore her bed at home had never felt so heavenly.

* * *

"W-what's going… what's going on? Where… am I? W-what is all this?!"

Weak limbs struggled to lift against the white hospital sheets, the IVs and tubes protruding from each arm acting as heavy restraints that kept the patient from any further movement. He grit his teeth at a sudden sting running from the point of needle entry straight to his heart, the muscle pounding relentlessly at the sudden increase of blood flow. Every artery burned, each thin vein searing under his skin, protesting even the slightest movement. 'What have they done to me?'

"Good morning Sunshine! I was wondering when you'd join us."

The doctor's eyes pinched before blinking open to soft fluorescents. Moving his head was out of the question, but the source of the voice that greeted him soon entered his limited vision. Doctor Honbu's throat tightened at the pointed grin and shining green eyes looming over him. "Nagawa," he rasped, the word dissolving into a cough as it pushed through his dry throat. "So… can I assume… this is your doing?"

"Who else would be able to clean up your mess?" Doctor Nagawa said winking. "You really did it this time, didn't you? I suppose you planned to take down the entire facility along with those escapees, right?" She clicked her tongue, the auburn tint to her hair shining as she shook her head disapprovingly. "A bit rash for my tastes."

A sneer quirked the patient's lip. "Rash? Let's hope _your_ records never make it out." His black eyes darted about the room, taking in the beeping monitors and IV stands. A silent machine in the corner caught his eye, and the searing in his veins became icy cold. "You… you did it. The blood… _that dog's blood_ … but…. You bitch! You…."

"Kept you alive?" Doctor Nagawa finished in a chipper tone. "You're welcome by the way."

"You saw the tests" he seethed, laboring to get out the words as his weak lungs heaved under increasing stress. "You know they were failures. None of the transfusions worked! The specimens went mad… their hearts exploded…." He trailed off into gasping, eyes closing as he fought to get his breathing back under control. Honbu met Doctor Nagawa's amused green eyes with a bitter grimace. "You just couldn't pass up the opportunity though, could you? Finally, a live human specimen."

"Well, you said it yourself Doctor" she replied with a shrug, "there's only so much you can learn from a cadaver. And you haven't died yet, have you? For experimental treatment, I'd say you're doing rather well. Besides…" she turned away, gazing through the thin opening in the curtain at the sprawling mountainside and distant cityscape. "I hardly think _you_ should be lecturing _me_ on live specimens." A light, bell-like laugh broke over the beeping machines, and Nagawa looked over her shoulder to meet her patient's glare. He was startled into silence by the animalistic glint of her eyes, the sharpness of her teeth as she smiled, the predatory arch of her neck as she observed his prone form. A fox leering at a crippled mouse. He cursed the primal fear sweeping through him – a fear he'd only felt once, looking into the red and blue eyes of Subject K-9. A bitter scowl turned his lips.

"Fine. Experiment away. Do whatever you need to get me back on my feet, I don't care."

"In a hurry, are we?" Nagawa's amused reply only fueled his temper, and Doctor Honbu answered sharply "I have a couple patients I'm eager to find. They never finished their 'treatment', and I'd hate to see them meet a bad end."

* * *

Kagome's eyes blinked open to soft sunlight and a crisp wind on her face. It took a few moments for her mind to connect the smooth pulsing gait of the body carrying her with the drifting skyline of apartment buildings and shopping centers, but when it did, Kagome gasped with wakefulness. It was Tokyo. They'd made it back. Inuyasha grunted beneath her, turning slightly over his shoulder with red eyes full of concern. She leaned forward and nuzzled her cheek against his, saying hoarsely "Sorry, I'm fine – I was just surprised is all. I can't believe… I mean, it's nice to see Tokyo again I guess."

He growled softly, accepting her answer and (Kagome imagined) agreeing with her sentiments. It'd been so long… _so long_ since she'd seen these buildings, the distant Mount Fuji, the smoky haze hovering over the city center. It was like a memory from a dream, and Kagome wondered if she was truly remembering all these sights and sounds and smells, or if her mind had concocted it all, hastily stitching together each experience to keep her from breaking down at how alien her hometown now seemed.

Inuyasha jumped from rooftop to rooftop with almost careless speed, following such a steady course that Kagome strained her eyes to see if the hilltop shrine was perhaps already visible. It wasn't, but Inuyasha wasn't limited by sight like she was. She trusted him, whether it be saving them from a demon or finding the path back home, and so she settled onto his back, clinging with her renewed strength and letting the demon loosen his death grip and focus more on his jumping.

Honking car horns, blaring Pachinko parlors, ads sung by digital voices all hummed beneath them as they crossed the Tokyo rooftops. The sounds faded into train rings, barking dogs, and occasional bicycle chimes as they came upon residential neighborhoods. It was early morning still, but glancing down a few times, Kagome saw the hustle of Tokyo living as children went to school, housewives went off to shop, and workers rushed to the train stations. They had no idea what leapt over their heads at that moment. She wondered if they'd really care.

Loneliness washed over her so unexpectedly she flinched. How could she possibly stay here after all this? How could she lead a normal life, a comfortable life like everyone in the streets below, when her image of comfort and safety had been so hopelessly shattered? If the well was still closed to them, how on earth would they survive this world?

Kagome longed for the Feudal Era more than ever. And then she saw the hill.

At first all she could make out were the trees. They spread further up the hillside than where the staircase cut off, but the hill plateaued before it became a true mountain. The shrine gate was the next thing she spotted, tarnished red and getting lost among the new browns and yellows of the early autumn leaves. Her grip on Inuyasha's shoulders tightened. She could see the top of the ornate temple. She saw the roof of her house.

Her mother's face filled her mind, clearer than it had been since that fateful morning she'd waved a cheery goodbye and set out for town with Inuyasha. The smile was so warm, so real, that Kagome's eyes began to sting. More than anything else, she missed her mother.

There were no buildings close enough to the shrine to allow the demon a clear entry, so using a few balconies and fire escapes, he brought them into a shaded alley just across the street from the towering shrine steps. Kagome gazed at them in apprehension. They were filthy, covered in leaves and debris and empty soda cans. Grandpa had always swept them clean as one of his daily chores, and their current state filled her with panic. The twisted doctor's words came back to her then: he'd said her family had left not long after her disappearance. But that had been a lie, hadn't it? They couldn't possibly… they wouldn't really have left, would they? Her family would never just give up like that. Not them.

Inuyasha set Kagome on her feet but grasped her frail hand in his clawed one before she could walk away. There was no way to hide her worry as she met his red and blue gaze, and she didn't try. "It's okay" he rasped, and Kagome noted how much easier the words came to him now. "We'll find them." She could only nod, and squaring her shoulders, pulled him by the hand and led him out of the alley and toward the stairs.

It took only one step onto the first for them to stop and stare at each other.

"You- did you feel that?!" Kagome's skin shivered at the small pulse of magic she'd encountered. It was a membrane-like wall that extended from the edge of the first step… like a barrier. Inuyasha nodded, his brows furrowed. "This shrine barrier never went this far down before." His gaze met hers, a dangerous fire highlighting the demon red. He took a deep breath, his black-tipped nose lifting into the air, and the corners of his mouth twisted into a predatory grin. Kagome watched the purple stripes crease over his cheeks, long white fangs making a reappearance, and she shivered at the bloodlust in his words as he growled "it _reeks_ of demon here."

The dog-demon was already crouching to spring up the steps when Kagome's gentle fingers touched his wrist. He whipped toward her, but the hunger was restrained, and her face showed only patience and a knowing smile. "Why don't we take this slowly – y'know, ask questions first? Attack later? It might be a peaceful demon. At least we could see if it knows anything about my family."

Inuyasha's face pinched in frustration, but he merely huffed, not saying another word. Kagome gave him a grateful smile and kept quiet as he lifted her in his arms and carried her up the long staircase to the red shrine gate. The closer they got to the top, the stronger the feeling of demon magic became. And yet… Kagome didn't fear the sensation like she'd feared the labs. Something about this power felt… familiar. Safe. Rustling leaves at the top of the hill caught her eye, and Kagome craned her neck to see the swaying branches of the Sacred Tree as it towered to the right of the entrance. The tree had always been a source of calm in the past, and seeing it now, after all they'd been through, was a balm to the soul that Kagome hadn't realized she'd needed.

Inuyasha finally crested the top of the stairs, and despite _their_ neglected state, the courtyard was well kept in comparison. The temple and storehouses were vacant, the small souvenir shop sporting a 'closed' sign in a dingy window, but the roofs were clean of branches, and a freshly swept pile of leaves on the far side of the yard sat waiting to be brushed under the fence. Hope sparked in Kagome's chest, and she stumbled forward, looking anxiously for a familiar old man with a broom; but aside from a few squirrels in the underbrush and birds twittering from the boughs of the Sacred Tree, there was no other sign of life.

"I don't get it," Kagome murmured as Inuyasha set her down on the bench beside the ancient tree. "Someone's here. Someone's been taking care of the shrine, even though… it doesn't look like anyone's come to visit in a long time. But if it's not Grandpa, or Mom or Souta, then who?"

"C'mon," Inuyasha rasped, his clawed hands gripping her waist to lift her off the bench and off her feet, setting her gently on the flagstones. "Let's look around. I can't sniff anything out here." His arm wrapped protectively around her back, nudging her toward the buildings further in. The demon's ears flicked to each sound, his sensitive nose sampling every inch of the air. Kagome searched as well, half-expecting the doors to the modest shrine temple to burst open and her grandpa to storm out chasing her little brother and the cat down the steps; but the buildings remained dormant, no matter how slowly she dragged her feet as they passed.

Even Inuyasha stopped though when they came up alongside the wellhouse. Kagome's breath caught as she looked through the shadowy slats, the blackness beyond hiding their closely guarded secret. Inuyasha's firm grip on her wrist startled her – she hadn't realized she'd been approaching the structure, her hand already outstretched to pull open the door. "Not yet" he told her, a quiet admonition that made Kagome shrink back. Of course he was right; finding her family was their first priority. But the call of the well, the siren serenade of the Feudal Era's simple life….

The faint clatter of a sliding door broke violently through Kagome's thoughts, a fierce growl rising in Inuyasha's chest as it became clear they weren't alone. Abandoning the well, they followed the sound to the gate marking the barrier between the public section of the shrine and the family's side, pushing through to the expansive yard. The house filled Kagome's vision, all the sights and sounds of Tokyo vanishing in the absurdity of the sight before her.

It was burned, broken, with windows boarded up and doors wedged closed with heavy wood beams. Autumn leaves lay piled against the outer walls, and broken pots of withered plants littered the porch. It was nothing short of deserted.

Kagome's lungs grew tight, her breath coming in staccato gasps, until the demon-man at her side shook her back to her senses. The shock was wearing off, despair welling up in its place, until her eye caught movement near the side of the house and all other thought ceased. For a moment the figure was familiar, a hunched old man with a broom, sweeping away the ever-falling leaves even as they continued to drop behind him. But another look confirmed: this was not her grandfather. The old man was small and thin, bent over his broom in a defensive curl. Gray hair hung over his hunched back in a bristled ponytail, his shrine-keeper robes in dingy shades of navy and sky blues. Kagome was struck dumb, confused and betrayed by the change in her home, the presence of this stranger.

A startled, aggressive growl erupted beside her, and the strange old man looked up. "The demon" Inuyasha rumbled, his clawed fingers flexing. Kagome stared across the yard at the stranger, who stood just as frozen as them, his wrinkled face awash with disbelief. The broom clattered to the packed dirt, and the old man wobbled on his feet. For a moment Kagome worried he might collapse, but in another motion he was hobbling towards them. Inuyasha's arm shot out in front of her, pushing her a safe distance behind him. It was none too soon, as the stumbling human legs changed to brown-furred paws, gray-streaked auburn tails sprouting behind him like a fan. In front of her Inuyasha tensed, and she expected him to launch at the approaching fox demon any minute. Instead he lurched back, and it took a moment for Kagome to realize that the old fox had collided with Inuyasha, weathered arms wrapping tight as could be around the lethal demon as a dry, croaking mix of laughter and weeping rose into the air.

"I can't – I just can't believe it! After all this time… all these years!" The old fox babbled, tears soaking the red knit of Inuyasha's sweater, but the dog-demon hardly seemed to notice. He was shaking, his red and blue eyes wide and focused on the faded red hair pressed against his chest. His black nostrils flared as he drew in the scent of the fox demon, and Kagome wondered, at such a close range and with the scent so strong in his nose, why he was taking so long to react to the unwarranted hug. The fox-demon continued to ramble incoherently, something in his odd behavior awakening forgotten memories of happier times. It was the kind of reunion she'd expected to have with her family, not a strange old demon trespassing on the shrine grounds.

Inuyasha's large hands grasped the frail old shoulders of his attacker, carefully but firmly pulling him away. Graying-auburn hair framed the wrinkled face in thin wisps, falling over pointed ears and intensely bright green eyes. A trimmed beard of the same faded red shadowed the lower half of his face, hiding some of his features, but… there was something familiar about him. In the brightness of the eyes, the sincerity of his smile. Realization hit Kagome a moment too late: before she had time to grab this horrid reality, strangle it, throw it in a box and bury it so far in the well not even the timeslip could bring it back.

"It can't be…" Inuyasha rasped, his voice low and choked with emotion that Kagome hadn't expected. "You can't be here. This isn't real. It's a trick."

The old man smiled through watery eyes, waving a bony finger as he chided "Now now Inuyasha, you and I both know your nose is sharper than that. After all, I lost count of how many times I heard you boast about how it 'never lies'! Don't try and tell me it works any worse in your demon form!"

A weak laugh was all Inuyasha could muster, before gathering the old man in a crushing hug. "Shaddup Runt."

The old fox smiled, squeezing back one last time before batting the demon's heavy arms away. "I'll have you know I'm not 'runt' anymore. It's 'old codger' now, thank you!" He cackled in a very grandfatherly way and turned his bright green gaze to the silent woman. Kagome couldn't meet it. Her head bowed in shame, wishing she had the courage to open her eyes and open her arms as Inuyasha had done. She'd missed this boy more than she'd realized, a hole in her heart beginning to fill with the realization that he was back in her life. But he wasn't that same boy – at least, not anymore. He was an old man now, centuries old. She'd missed his entire life. How long had he been waiting for them? How long had he been alone? She and Inuyasha had saved this child, given him a home and a family, makeshift though it was, and then abandoned him through a timeslip. Five hundred years worth of living and moving on, and yet here he was, cleaning up her abandoned home and greeting them with smiles and tears. How could he possibly forgive them after such a long, long time?

She sank to her knees, burying her tear-soaked face in her fists as a crackling voice whispered "Kagome..." There was a sound of crunching dirt, and thin arms wrapped about her shoulders. She cried harder as his head rested against her and tears dampened her sweater; instinctively she wrapped an arm around his back, wanting to hold him like she used to. "I missed you so much" he mumbled, his many tails wrapping around her knees, enveloping her in warmth. Kagome hiccupped, grasping him tighter as she choked through her tears "Oh Shippo… I missed you too."

* * *

*Author's Note:

Ummmmm... okay so it's been a long time since I updated this. It's actually been a long time since I updated _anything_ , but that's beside the point. Kinda. Anyways, hope you enjoy the fluff, the angst, and the foreshadowing for future trouble facing our favorite couple. And next chapter, the truth about the Higurashis, more clues to our new mysterious antagonist, and the tragic tale of Shippo's long (but full) life. Oh, and the InuKag steam kicks it up a notch.


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